Men's Hockey | 2/23/2013 9:32:00 PM

Box Score

ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team (13-14-5, 11-10-4 AHA) won for the fourth time in its last five games, getting a late second period goal from Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings) and 22 saves from Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) to hang on and defeat conference rival Air Force (15-11-7, 13-7-5 AHA) by a score of 2-1 in front of 1,812 fans at Ritter Arena on Saturday evening.

The Tigers played perhaps its best defensive game of the season, holding Air Force to just 23 shots and matching the Falcons in what was an incredibly physical game. Air Force's defense was equally as stifling, holding the Tigers to just 24 shots. RIT's defensive unit of Chris Saracino (St. Louis, MO/Green Bay Gamblers), Eliot Raibl (Vancouver, British Columbia/Quesnel Millionaires), Nolan Descoteaux (Dallas, TX/South Shore Kings), Brad Shumway (Lafayette, CO/Chicago Steel), Greg Noyes (Lucan, Ontario/Salmon Arm Silverbacks), and Alexander Kuqali (Pittsburgh, PA/Sioux City Musketeers) did an excellent blocking shots and shutting down the Air Force forwards all evening.

Defenseman Adam McKenzie scored Air Force's only goal of the game, a 5-on-3 power-play marker just 3:56 into the game. Goaltender Jason Torf made 22 saves in defeat, as RIT snapped a five-game winless streak against the Falcons.

Ruby was excellent all evening for the Tigers, controlling his rebounds, giving the Falcons little in the way of second chances. Jeff Smith (Spokane, WA/Tri-City Storm) scored a first period goal for the Tigers, who move into a tie for sixth in the AHA standings with Mercyhurst.

The Tigers had just one power-play chance, going scoreless on it. Air Force was 1-for-3. Just one minor penalty was called in the final two minutes. Air Force was whistled for just one penalty on the evening, while RIT took three.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson was very happy with his team's effort for the entire 60 minutes tonight.

“It's not often where you get to redeem yourself in the same situation (being up 2-1 going into the third period), the two shifts we had last night were inexcusable, but tonight, we played really well defensively all game," said Wilson. "We fine tuned a couple of things defensively and we were happy with that effort. We wanted to get some more shots tonight, but it was just a hard fought battle.”

Both teams scored once in a quickly played period that featured just 13 combined shots on goal.

RIT got themselves into penalty problems right away and it burned them, as Air Force got on the board on a 5-on-3 power-play just 3:56 into the game, as McKenzie rifled a hard wrist shot from the top of the circle over the shoulder of Ruby for his second goal of the weekend and fifth of the season.

The Tigers settled into a defensive groove, allowing just three more shots the rest of the period. At the 17:09 mark, Smith attempted a wrap around that was stopped by Torf. Smith kept at it and buried his own rebound through the legs of the Air Force goaltender for his 13th goal of the season. Saracino and Raibl assisted on the goal.

The second period featured tremendous physical play on both sides, with Garbowsky getting rewarded for his hard work by scoring the lone goal of the period with 6.2 seconds left, giving RIT the 2-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.

Air Force had two great chances in the first half of the period. Jason Fabian whistled a shot through a screen that had Ruby beat, but hit the left post and bounced out of harm's way. Moments later, Ruby was called upon to make a huge save going post to post to rob Stephen Carew in close.

The Falcons held RIT without a shot for the first 16 minutes of the period. RIT's first shot nearly went in, as Bryan Potts (Niagara Falls, Ontario/Markham Waxers) had a great chance in the slot, but Torf kept the game tied with an excellent glove save.

RIT rediscovered its offensive touch, firing six shots over the last four minutes of the period, keeping the puck deep in the Air Force zone. In the final seconds, Dan Schuler (Webster, NY/Powell River Kings) caused a turnover that came to Brad McGowan (Langley, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) in the slot. McGowan turned and had his shot blocked, but the carom came right to Garbowsky, who cut across the crease and deked Torf for his eighth goal of the season.

Garbowsky now has six goals over his last four games and seven over his last seven games, after tallying once over his first 23 contests

Air Force now leads the all-time series between the two schools, 19-15-3. The teams have met in the last two AHA Championship games and have combined to win the last six league titles. Since the start of the 2005-06 season, RIT is 12-17-3 against Air Force. The Tigers have an 9-4-1 mark against the Falcons at Ritter Arena during that span.
 
Tonight's game was the third and final regular season meeting between the two schools. On Dec. 2, the Falcons defeated RIT in overtime at Cadet Ice Arena by a score of 3-2 on a goal by Carew.  Andrew Miller (Chicago, IL/Chicago Steel) and Brad Reid (Delta, British Columbia/Coquitlam Express) scored in the loss for RIT, who was whistled for 42 minutes in penalties to just four for the Falcons. Last night, Air Force scored four third period goals in rallying from a 2-1 deficit. Kyle DeLaurell tallied two goals and added an assist for the Falcons, while Garbowsky scored twice for RIT.

The Tigers and Falcons conclude their regular season series on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.

“We know Canisius is going to come out hard against us, just like everyone that last few weeks has done," said Wilson. We are getting battle tested, which is going to help us down the stretch.”