Men's Hockey | 1/15/2013 12:17:00 PM

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ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team travels East on Interstate-90 this weekend to play a pair of games at Atlantic Hockey Association rival Army on Friday and Saturday at 7:05 p.m.  Both teams are jockeying for position in the bunched up AHA standings.

This weekend, all 12 AHA teams are in action, as the six AHA Eastern pod teams play the six AHA Western pod squads. This season, the AHA's six Western teams (Air Force, Canisius, Mercyhurst, Niagara, RIT, and Robert Morris) hold a decisive 30-12-6 edge in Inter-pod play against the six eastern teams (American International, Army, Bentley, Connecticut, Holy Cross, Sacred Heart).  RIT is 4-2-2 against the Eastern teams in 2012-13.

The Tigers (6-10-4, 4-6-3 AHA) enters the weekend tied for ninth in the AHA standings with 11 points, but are just six points out of second place.  Last weekend, the Tigers split a pair of home contests against Bentley, losing 3-0 on Friday, while rebounding to win 4-0 on Saturday. Goaltender Josh Watson (Lititz, PA/Powell River Kings) made 31 saves on Saturday for his second shutout of the season. On Monday, he was named the AHA co-Goaltender of the Week for the first time in his collegiate career.

RIT is starting to generate excellent scoring depth, as eight players have at least 10 points. The Tigers are 18th nationally in scoring, averaging 3.05 goals per game. The RIT power-play has a goal in 14 of its last 18 games and is eighth nationally at 22.4 percent. RIT penalty-killing unit has killed of 57 of its opponents last 62 chances with the man-advantage (91.9 percent). In AHA play, Watson has a 2.09 goals against average and .932 save percentage.

Army (7-10-3, 7-5-3 AHA) enters the weekend sitting second in the AHA standings with 17 points. Last weekend, the Black Knights earned a point at fellow service academy Air Force, losing 4-1 on Friday, while skating to a 3-3 draw on Saturday. The Black Knights are getting outscored 62-46 this season. Andy Starczewski, who recorded a hat-trick against RIT last season, leads Army in scoring this year with 17 points on five goals and 12 assists. Freshman Thane Heller leads the squad with seven goals. In net, Rob Tadazak and Ryan Leets have split time this season. Tadazak is 3-5-2 with a 2.67 goals against average and .919 save percentage, while Leets is 4-5-1 with a 3.31 goals against average and .907 save percentage.

It will be the only regular season meetings between the two schools this season. The Tigers took three of four points between the two schools last season at Ritter Arena tying 2-2 and winning by a score of 5-3. RIT is 9-2-5 all-time against Army and have an 11-game unbeaten streak against the Black Knights (8-0-3), dating back to Nov. 15, 2008.  RIT is 5-1-2 all-time at Tate Rink.