Men's Hockey | 1/18/2013 9:30:00 PM

Box Score

WEST POINT, NY – Needing to make up ground in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings, the RIT men's hockey team (7-10-4, 5-6-3 AHA) held on to beat Army 6-5 in AHA action from Tate Rink on Friday night. The Tigers came into tonight's action in a tie with Connecticut for ninth place in the AHA standings. The win moves RIT into a four way tie for seventh place with 13 points, while Army drops to third with 17 points. The six goals scored by the Tigers were a season-high.

Jeff Smith (Spokane, WA/Tri-City Storm) scored two goals and added an assist, while Ben Lynch (Blaine, MN/Lincoln Stars) added a goal and two assists. Josh Mitchell (Osoyoos, British Columbia/Alberni Valley Bulldogs) recorded a pair of assists for the Tigers. Mike Colavecchia (Maple, Ontario/Lindsay Muskies), Nolan Descoteaux (Dallas, TX/South Shore Kings), and Andrew Miller (Chicago, IL/Chicago Steel) also scored for RIT, while Josh Watson (Lititz, PA/Powell River Kings) improved to 6-6-3 on the season allowing five goals and making 25 saves. Rob Tadazak took the loss for Army allowing six goals and making 32 saves.

“I thought we played a really good game tonight,” said RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson. “All four lines were good, our “D” moved the puck, Josh (Watson) was good, our power play was good and our penalty kill was good. Just a couple little mistakes that made it close down the stretch.”

The Tigers held a 38-30 shot advantage and went 2-for-4 on the power play including a 5-on-3 man-advantage goal in the second period. The Tigers held the Black Knights scoreless on four power play chances, as RIT has now killed off 61 of its opponents last 66 power-play attemots dating back to Nov. 2.

RIT came out firing in the first period, rifling 15 shots. Smith struck early for the Tigers at 1:02 into the contest off an assist from Chris Saracino (St. Louis, MO/Green Bay Gamblers). Saracino sent a hard shot on net from the point. The rebound came right to Smith who was crashing the net, and he one-timed the puck into the open net for his seventh goal of the season.

The Black Knights evened the score at 1-1 at 9:04 of the first off Brian Schultz's second goal of the season. Schultz and Josh Roberts worked the give-and-go play on a rush by Army into the RIT zone. Roberts got around his defender and sent a pass to Schultz who beat Watson to the spot from in close at 9:04 of the first period.

The Tigers answered back at 11:43 of the first on Lynch's seventh goal of the season. Alexander Kuqali (Pittsburgh, PA/Sioux City Musketeers) fired a slap shot from the point that Lynch tipped past Army goalie Rob Tadazak for a 2-1 Tigers lead. Smith tallied an assist on the goal.

RIT ended the period on a high note with a power play goal at 18:01, as Descoteaux was on the receiving end of a nice tic-tac-toe play by the Tigers. Lynch started the play, sending a pass to Brad McGowan (Langley, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles), who sent a cross-ice pass to Descoteaux who one-timed a shot past Tadazk for a 3-1 RIT lead. It was Descoteaux's second goal of the season.

Army came with two second-period goals, while the Tigers added a 5-on-3 power play goal to lead 4-3 after two periods of play.

The Black Knights made it 3-2 at 7:56 of the period on agoal by Andy Starczewski. He picked up a loose puck at center ice and broke in on Watson. Eliot Raibl (Vancouver, British Columbia/Quesnel Millionaires) skated back and knocked the puck off of Starczewski's stick, but the loose puck trickled past Watson who was sprawled on the ice.

Colavecchia gave the Tigers a two-goal cushion at 16:09 of the second on his ninth goal of the season. With the Tigers on a 5-on-3 power play, Josh Mitchell (Osoyoos, British Columbia/Alberni Valley Bulldogs) spotted Colavecchia camped out in front of the Army net and fed him a pass. Colavecchia fired a wrist shot over Tadazak's shoulder for a 4-2 RIT edge. Greg Noyes (Lucan, Ontario/Salmon Arm Silverbacks) added an assist on the goal, Colavecchia's team-best ninth of the season. Colavecchia now has four goals in his last four games and seven over his past seven contests.

Josh Richards scored at 19:41 to pull the Black Knights to within a goal at 4-3. He scored off a nice pass from Starczewski for his fifth goal of the season.

Smith opened the scoring in the third period on his second tally of the game at 7:17 off assists from Josh Mitchell (Osoyoos, British Columbia/Alberni Valley Bulldogs) and Lynch. Smith scored off a back-handed shot that beat Tadazak between the legs for his eighth of the season.

The Tigers seemed to have put the game away at 11:35 of the third on Andrew Miller (Chicago, IL/Chicago Steel)'s second goal of the season on assists from Brian Potts and Anthony Hamburg (Phoenix, AZ/Omaha Lancers) to make it 6-3 Tigers.

Army kept at it, cutting RIT's lead to 6-4 when Andrew O'Leary tipped home a shot from John Clark at 18:19 of the third. Thane Heller made it 6-5 with an extra attacker goal at 19:52 off an assist from Brian Schultz.

RIT won the ensuing face-off and killed off the final eight seconds to hold on for the win. RIT is 10-2-5 all-time against Army and have a 12-game unbeaten streak against the Black Knights (9-0-3), dating back to Nov. 15, 2008.  RIT is 6-1-2 all-time at Tate Rink.

These two teams return to action on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Tate Rink on the campus of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.