Men's Hockey | 10/5/2013 7:27:00 PM

Box Score

ROCHESTER, NY – Despite firing 52 shots on goal, the RIT men's hockey team dropped its 2013-14 exhibition opener by a score of 2-1 to the Queen's University Gaels in front of 1,280 fans at Ritter Arena on Saturday evening.

Brad McGowan (Langley, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) scored RIT's lone goal just 4:11 into the contest. From there, Queen's goaltender Kevin Bailie stole the show, stopping 51-of-52 shots to pick up the win. Jordan Soquilla and Pat McGillis scored first period goals for Queen's.

RIT out-shot the Gaels 52-26. RIT was 0-for-7 with the man-advantage, while Queen's was 0-for-2. RIT goaltender Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) played the full 60 minutes, stopping 24 shots.

"I was very happy with how we played over the final two periods," said RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson. "Our penalty killing unit was great, our power-play did a good job controlling the puck, but we tried for the pretty goals instead of getting the puck to the net. There wasn't much more we could do to control play over the final two periods other than scoring the tying goal. Their goalie played really well, but we need to get to the net and score ugly goals."

McGowan opened the scoring 4:11 into the game, taking a drop pass from Dan Schuler (Webster, NY/Powell River Kings) in the slot, and firing a hard wrist shot from the left face-off circle just under the crossbar. Anthony Hamburg (Phoenix, AZ/Omaha Lancers) fed Schuler in the neutral zone before heading off on a line change, earning the second assist.

Soquilla tied the game at 1-1 for Queen's just 2:03 later, taking advantage of a bad RIT line change. Soquila came into the zone and fired a perfect shot over the shoulder of Ruby.

McGills scored the eventual game-winning goal at the 17:57 mark, as he took a feed from Jordan Coccimiglio down low, waited out Ruby, and slid the puck around the RIT goaltender.

RIT pounded the net in the second period, out-shooting Queen's 23-5, but Bailie was sensational, turning aside everything he faced including several big saves.

Before RIT began its offensive onslaught, they had to kill off a five-minute major to Caleb Cameron (Sunridge, Ontario/Listowel Cyclones) who was given a game misconduct for checking from behind. The RIT penalty-killing unit was flawless over the five minutes, not allowing a single shot on goal.

From there, RIT dominated play in the period, firing everything towards Bailie, but the Queen's goaltender kept everything out to keep it 2-1.

Bailie's best save of the period came with about seven minutes left, when an initial shot by Garbowsky was stopped, with the rebounding sitting in the slot for an unmarked Schuler, who seemed to have the entire net to shoot at. Bailie quickly dove across and smothered the shot.

Moments later, Schuler was robbed again on the rush, when his hard wrist shot from the slot was stopped by Bailie. The rebound dropped behind him, but RIT was unable to capitalize.

In the third period, RIT kept coming, out-shooting Queen's 17-9, but once again, Bailie did his part to keep RIT off the board. RIT received four third period power-plays, but were unable to convert.

The all-time series between RIT and Queens is now knotted at 1-1.

The loss snapped a 19-game winning streak against Canadian Universities. It was the first loss at Ritter Arena against a Canadian University since losing to Wilfrid Laurier in 1985.

The Tigers open the 2013-14 regular season on Thursday with a home contest against Colgate University that gets underway at 7:05 p.m.