Men's Hockey | 11/1/2013 9:59:00 PM

Box Score

ROCHESTER, NY – Air Force goaltender Jason Torf continued his four-year mastery over the Tigers, as he stopped all 39 shots he faced to lead the Falcons (5-2-0, 3-0-0 AHA to a 2-0 win over the RIT men's hockey team (0-4-2, 0-1-0 AHA) in an Atlantic Hockey Association contest in front of 1,788 fans at Ritter Arena on Friday evening.
 
The Tigers played their best game of the season, out-shooting Air Force 39-25, including 29-14 over the final two periods. The Tigers limited Air Force to very little in the way of quality chances throughout.
 
Torf was the difference however, keeping everything out of the net for his fourth shutout all-time against the Tigers. He is now 7-2-0 all-time against RIT with a 1.42 goals against average and .955 save percentage in 10 games.
 
Ben Carey scored 7:11 into the contest and Scott Holm tallied a power-play goal 2:09 into the second period for all of Air Force's offense. Alex Halloran assisted on both goals.
 
RIT goaltender Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) played well, stopping 23 shots in defeat.
 
The Falcons were 1-for-4 with the man-advantage, while RIT, who was fifth nationally coming into the contest on the power-play, finished 0-for-3. They generated just one shot on the three power-play attempts.
 
RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson thought his team played well, even in defeat.
 
"I liked how everyone played tonight, but our top-line players have to put the puck into the net," said Wilson. "I liked our intensity, we played really well over the final two periods, and all four lines were strong, especially our fourth line. We need to bear down and finish our chances. Air Force may have been just a bit more determined tonight and that was the difference."
 
Air Force scored the lone goal in a quickly played first period that featured 5-on-5 play for the full 20 minutes.
 
RIT had a great chance about five minutes in, as Brandon Thompson (Vancouver, British Columbia/Handsworth) was robbed in front by Torf.
 
Moments later, Dan Schuler (Webster, NY/Powell River Kings) had a strong chance from point-blank range blocked by a Falcons defenseman. The puck came to Alex Halloran, who sent George Michalke in on a 3-on-2 break with Carey. Michalke fed a perfect to pass to a streaking Carey, who was able to redirect the puck past Ruby for his second goal of the year.
 
Both teams kept coming as the period went on. Ruby had to make a big save on Ryan Dau on a rebound in close. Torf made his best save on a redirection by Brad McGowan (Langley, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) off a centering feed late in the period.
 
RIT also had a handful of great point-blank chances that were fired wide of the net.
 
Air Force scored an early second period goal to go up 2-0, but from there, the Tigers buzzed, out-shooting the Falcons, 17-8. Torf was sensational in the period, making five tremendous saves to keep RIT off the board.
 
The Falcons made it 2-0 just 2:09 into the period, on the power-play, as Holm was the recipient of nice puck movement. Halloran fed a pass down low to Jason Demers, who centered the puck to Holm, who was able to stuff it between the legs of Ruby.
 
Ruby made a huge save to keep it 2-0 Falcons moments later, as he robbed Demers on a 3-on-1. Demers tried to go high from the left wing, but Ruby got his shoulder on the shot to deflect it out of play.
 
The final half of the second period was all Torf, as he did everything he could to keep RIT from getting on the board.
 
Schuler made a tremendous move to get around a Falcons defenseman and cut to the net. He looked to have Torf beat, but the Air Force goaltender, stuck his right pad out to somehow keep the puck out of the cage.
 
RIT kept coming in the third period, but once again, Torf and the Air Force defense kept RIT off the board.
 
RIT and Air Force have one of the most competitive rivalries in Division I. Air Force leads the all-time series between the two schools, 20-15-3. The teams met in the last 2011 and 2012 AHA Championship games and combined to win the last six of the last seven league titles. Since the start of the 2005-06 season, RIT is 12-18-3 against Air Force. The Tigers have an 9-5-1 mark against the Falcons at Ritter Arena during that span.
 
The Tigers have a six-game winless streak, their longest to start a season at the Division I level. It was the first time RIT was shutout since Feb. 8, 2013, a 3-0 loss at Robert Morris. Air Force shut the Tigers out for the first time ever at Ritter Arena.

RIT is 0-2 at Ritter Arena in 2013-14 and just 7-10-2 since the start of the 2011-12 season. RIT was 36-5-10 at home from 2009-2012.
 
RIT returns to action next weekend with a pair of AHA contests on the road. RIT plays at Mercyhurst on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7:05 p.m., and travel to Robert Morris to play the Colonials on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7:05 p.m.