Men's Hockey | 3/16/2012 10:23:00 PM

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ROCHESTER, NY -- Senior forward Taylor McReynolds (Sherwood Park, Alberta/) scored at 2:57 of overtime to lift the third-seeded RIT men's hockey team (20-12-6) to a hard-fought 2-1 win over second-seed Niagara University (17-11-9) in the Atlantic Hockey Association Semifinals in front of 3,287 fans at Blue Cross Arena on Friday evening. RIT's win over the Purple Eagles is the first against them since Feb. 8, 1997, breaking 13-game winless streak.

RIT will face Air Force in the AHA Championship for the second straight season on Saturday at 7:05 p.m., also at the Blue Cross Arena. The winner of that game gets an automatic berth into the 2012 NCAA Division I Championship Tournament. RIT is 1-2-0 against Air Force this season, but won the only meeting between the two schools in Rochester, 3-1 on Nov. 11.

McReynolds, who scored the game-winning goal and added an assist, one-timed a pass from Trevor Eckenswiller (Lions Head, Ontario/) that hit Niagara goaltender Chris Noonan in the shoulder. The puck seemed to handcuff Noonan and fell over his shoulder and bounced into the net for his third goal in two games. McReynolds had scored two goals in his first 35 games of the year.

"I just crashed the net," said McReynolds. "Ecky (Eckenswiller) threw the puck in and I one-timed it on net and it fell in."

The Tigers advance to the championship game for the third straight year. Last year, Air Force beat the Tigers 1-0 despite being outshot 41-24 by RIT. Air Force, the top-seed advanced to the AHA Championship after defeating fourth-seed Mercyhurst, 5-2 in the first semifinal this afternoon.

"It was a good, hard-fought game," said RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson. "We played really well right from the get-go, continuing it on into the third period and overtime."

After a scoreless first two periods, RIT took a 1-0 lead at 3:25 of the third period Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings)'s ninth goal of the season. McReynolds intercepted a breakout pass by Niagara, fed Garbowsky, who came in on a partial breakaway and placed a hard wrist shot over Noonan's shoulder.

Niagara answered just over 11 minutes later on a goal by Chris Lochner. He gathered a loose puck deep in the RIT zone, circled around the Tigers net and tucked the puck in bewteen Shane Madolora (Salinas, CA/)'s legs for his 13th of the season.

Early in the overtime, Madolora, who was brilliant in net for RIT making 24 saves, made two of his best on shots from Scott Arnold at point-blank range to keep the game tied.

Madolora picked up his 18th win of the season and sixth in postseason play. Noonan, who leads all of Division I in save percentage, was very strong, stopping 36 shots.

RIT and Niagara were ECAC West foes in the 1990's when both were Division III teams. The Tigers are now 3-9-6 all-time against the Purple Eagles and are 1-6-4 since moving to Division I in 2005.

Tonight's game was the fourth of four meetings of the season between the two schools. In the first meeting of the season on Oct. 8, the two teams skated to a scoreless tie, RIT's one and only in 47 seasons of varsity hockey. Madolora made 32 saves in that contest, while Niagara's Cody Campbell stopped 30 shots. On Feb. 24, Ryan Murphy scored the hat-trick and added an assist in the Purple Eagles' 4-1 win at Dwyer Arena. The next night, RIT out-shot Niagara 53-31, but needed a power-play goal late in regulation from Chris Haltigin (Oakville, Ontario/) to earn the 2-2 tie.

RIT outshot Niagara 38-25, while both teams were 0-for-2 with the man advantage.