Men's Hockey | 3/2/2013 9:35:00 PM

Box Score

BUFFALO, NY – The RIT men's hockey team (13-16-5, 11-12-4 AHA) dropped its regular season finale, falling to Canisius College (13-18-5, 12-13-2 AHA) by a score of 4-2 at Buffalo State Ice Arena on Saturday evening. The Tigers finish the regular season eighth in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings and will host ninth seeded American International in a best of three first round series next weekend at Ritter Arena.

The Tigers out-shot Canisius 38-33, including 14-6 in the third period, but could not solve goaltender Tony Capobianco, who made 36 saves in the win.
Kyle Gibbons scored a goal and added two assists for Golden Griffins, who swept the season series from the Tigers. The two teams tied for seventh in the league standings, but Canisius won the tiebreaker, going 3-0 vs. RIT this season.

Mitch McCrank and Ben Parker scored a goal and added an assist apiece for Canisius, while Cody Freeman also scored.

Brad McGowan (Langley, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) had a goal and an assist, while Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings) also scored for the Tigers, who finish with a losing record in AHA play for the first time since joining the league in 2006. Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) made 29 saves in defeat.

The Tigers, who entered the game with the top power-play in all of Division I, were 0-for-3 with the man-advantage. Canisius was 1-for-4.

RIT Head Coach Wayne Wilson knows his team must be much better to advance in the postseason.

“I thought we were emotionally spent (from last night) and ran out of gas tonight,” said Wilson. “We couldn't muster the extra push late when we needed it. We need to prepare for next weekend's opponent and thankfully we may get a few healthy bodies back. We know what we are capable of and need to execute.”

Canisius led 2-1 after one period of play, out-shooting the Tigers 14-9.

Colavecchia had a great chance about three minutes in, whistling a shot wide on a 2-on-1 break.

RIT jumped out to the lead at the 6:52 mark, as McGowan intercepted a clearing pass in the Canisius slot and fed a pass to Garbowsky, who was cutting towards the net. Garbowsky was able to tip the pass over Capobianco and in for his ninth goal of the season.

Garbowsky now has a seven-game point scoring streak. He has seven goals and five assists over that span.

Canisius struck back with two goals in a span of 22 seconds midway through the period to take the lead. Parker scored his first goal of the season at the 10:41 mark, putting a wrist shot through traffic that eluded Ruby.

At the 11:03 mark, Gibbons went around a RIT defenseman, came in on a partial breakaway, and slid a forehand through the legs of Ruby for his 16th goal of the year.

Colavecchia had another good chance later in the period off a giveaway, but was stopped by Capobianco.

Neither team scored in an action packed second period, in which both goaltenders shined.

Ruby made a great glove save on Patrick Sullivan on a Canisius power-play midway through the frame and stopped Cody Freeman on a wraparound attempt.

Garbowsky nearly scored twice on the same shift later in the period. He had a point blank chance stopped by Capobianco, and then somehow, the Canisius goaltender kept the puck out on the rebound, as Garbowsky looked to have the open side on a wraparound attempt. Colavecchia just pushed a juicy rebound wide in tight off a shot from Chris Saracino (St. Louis, MO/Green Bay Gamblers).

The Golden Griffins had a few great chances on a shift late in the period to go up 3-1, but Ruby made three big saves from in close, as RIT was caught running around in its own zone.

McCrank made it 3-1 Golden Griffins at the 4:01 on the power-play, getting open in front, taking a nice feed from Sullivan and redirecting a shot into the open corner past Ruby.

RIT cut the Canisius lead in half 2:47 later, as McGowan fired a hard wrist shot over the shoulder of Capobianco. He took a feed from Greg Noyes (Lucan, Ontario/Salmon Arm Silverbacks) in the neutral zone, came into the zone on a 3-on-2 break and tallied his eighth goal of the season.

Canisius got its two-goal lead back for good with 8:29 left, as Freeman was the trailer on a 3-on-2 rush, got the feed in the slot and wristed a shot over the glove of Ruby.

RIT is now 55-18-1 all-time against the Golden Griffins and 16-8-0 since the start of the 2005-06 season. Canisius won the 2012-13 season series lead 3-0, scoring 16 goals in the three contests. On Nov. 10, Canisius scored three third period goals to snap a 3-3 tie and defeat the Tigers 6-3 at Ritter Arena. Last night, RIT fell behind 3-0 after one and 5-2 after two periods, before roaring back in the final frame, falling short, 6-5.

Check www.ritathletics.com for complete details on Monday for next weekend's AHA First Round Series, including game times and ticket prices.