Men's Hockey | 2/1/2013 9:53:00 PM

Box Score

ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team (8-12-5, 6-8-4 AHA) dropped its second consecutive contest, falling to the University of Connecticut (11-11-3, 8-8-2 AHA) 3-1 in front of 1,752 fans at Ritter Arena on Friday evening. RIT falls to 10th place in the AHA standings.

Chris Saracino (St. Louis, MO/Green Bay Gamblers) scored RIT's lone goal, a power-play tally from the high slot with 6:22 left in regulation that spoiled the shutout bid of Connecticut goaltender Matt Grogan, who finished the evening with 34 saves and was named the game's first star.

Trevor Gerling scored a goal and added an assist for the Huskies, who snapped a nine-game losing streak at Ritter Arena dating back six years. Evan Carierre and Tyler Cooke also scored for Connecticut.

RIT goaltender Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) played well in defeat, stopping 33 shots, including several excellent saves from point-blank range.

Connecticut out-shot RIT 36-35. The Huskies were 1-for-4 with the man-advantage, while RIT who entered the nation with the No. 2 power-play in the nation went 1-for-3 and did not get an opportunity with the extra man until there was 11:43 left in regulation.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson knows his team needs to be better to salvage the weekend split tomorrow night.

"I think they (Connecticut) defended better, gave us no second opportunities," said Wilson. "We didn't have any traffic, screens, or rebound chances. Their first goal just had eyes and it found the back of the net. We had a couple of breakdowns on the other ones. I thought it was two pretty even teams quite frankly. We didn't get the puck luck, but that's something we gotta work for too. Sometimes you don't work hard enough for it to bounce your way. You gotta work for it."

Connecticut scored the only goal in a first period that featured 25 shots on goal, 14 by the Huskies, and 11 by RIT.

With just 36 seconds left in the period, Cooke sent a seeing-eye shot from the right point through a maze of bodies off the crossbar and in past Ruby, who never saw the shot. The goal was Cooke's first of the season. Brant Harris and Jordan Sims assisted on the tally.

Earlier in the frame, Adam Mitchell (Crofton, MD/Baystate Breakers) had a great chance, slipping through a pair of Connecticut defensemen on the rush, but was denied by Grogan with a nice pad save from in tight.

Ruby made a handful of good saves early on to keep the game scoreless, including two from in tight on Cody Sharib.

Right before the end of the period, Jeff Smith (Spokane, WA/Tri-City Storm) came in alone on Grogan on a partial breakaway, but was robbed, as the goaltender made a great poke check to keep the puck out.

The Huskies expanded their lead to 3-0 after two periods, scoring twice in a span of 20 seconds.

At the 8:41 mark, Gerling deposited a rebound from the side of the net after a good save by Ruby on the initial shot by Skyler Smutek. Sharib also assisted on the tally, Gerling's eighth of the season.

Just 20 seconds later, Carriere potted a rebound off a shot from Shaun Pauly on the ensuing faceoff.

Grogan kept RIT off the board the rest of the period, as Connecticut did a great job keeping RIT pinned to the perimeter.

Ruby made a tremendous save on Sean Ambrosie on a breakaway in the first minute of the third period to keep RIT in the game.

With just 6:22 left in regulation, Saracino took a feed from Mike Colavecchia (Maple, Ontario/Lindsay Muskies) in the high slot and ripped a shot that deflected off of Grogan and in for his sixth goal of the season. Greg Noyes (Lucan, Ontario/Salmon Arm Silverbacks) also assisted on the goal.

From there, Connecticut's defense stiffened and was able to run out the final six minutes to earn the big win and move up in the AHA standings.

RIT is now 18-8-1 all-time against Connecticut, and 13-6-1 since 2007. The Tigers are 13-3-0 all-time against Connecticut at Ritter Arena. RIT is just 3-5-1 at Ritter Arena this season. From 2009-2012, RIT was 35-3-10 against AHA foes at home.

The two teams return to action once again on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.