ROCHESTER, NY – Rebecca Vint scored a shorthanded goal 3:16 into the third period to break a 1-1 tie and give No. 9 Robert Morris (22-6-3, 11-4-2 CHA) a 2-1 win over the RIT women's hockey team (13-15-3, 8-7-2 CHA) in a crucial College Hockey America contest at Ritter Arena on Friday afternoon.

Vint blocked a RIT shot in the high slot and broke in with Thea Imbrogno on a 2-on-1 rush. Vint faked pass, freezing the RIT defenseman back and was able to roof a backhander from in close over the shoulder of RIT goaltender Ali Binnington (Oakville, Ontario/Mississauga Chiefs) for her 21st goal of the season.

From there, RIT would put on the pressure over the final 16 minutes, but could not get the equalizer. The Tigers would get a power-play for the final 1:57 of regulation and pull Binnington, giving them a 5-on-3 for 59 seconds and a 6-on-4 edge for the final 58 seconds, but were unable to pull even, as the Colonials defense did a great job keeping the Tigers on the perimeter.

Vint and Anneline Lauziere scored for the Colonials, who improve to 3-0 against RIT this season. In net, Jessica Dodds stopped 22 shots to pick up her 19th win of the season.

Lindsay Grigg (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Hornets) scored a first period power-play goal for the Tigers, who have now dropped three straight contests. In net, Binnington was tremendous in defeat, stopping 35-of-37 shots in her first full game since Jan. 25.

Robert Morris out-shot RIT, 37-23. RIT was 1-for-5 with the man-advantage, while Robert Morris was 0-for-5.

"We have to be more consistent in our play," said RIT head coach Scott McDonald. "Every line has to be sharp tomorrow, on every shift. Tomorrow and next weekend's contests are must win games, there is no getting around that. We would like to close this arena out on a positive note."

RIT scored the lone goal in a physical first period of play in which Robert Morris held a 16-7 edge in shots.

Just 3:18 into the contest, Grigg fired a hard slap shot from the right point over the shoulder of Dodds for her second goal of the season, on the power-play, giving RIT a 1-0 lead. Erin Zach (Elmira, Ontario/Cambridge Fury) and Kourtney Kunichika (Fullerton, CA/LA Selects) swapped positions with the puck at the left wing wall.Zach fired a pass  through the slot to Grigg, who made no mistake with her hard slap shot.

A minute later, RIT found themselves down two players, but Binnington was the difference on the Robert Morris 5-on-3, making a series of incredible saves, including one on Thea Imbrogno at the side of the net.

Celeste Brown (Great Falls, MT/National Sports Academy) nearly made it 2-0 halfway through the period, taking a perfect feed from Dakota Waites (Whitby, Ontario/Sinclair) on a 2-on-1 rush. She had the open side to shoot on, but could not corral the pass, just missing wide.

Robert Morris tied the game in the second period, 5:26 into the frame, as Lauziere corralled a rebound at the left face-off circle off a shot from Howard turned a fired a shot through traffic past Binnington for her second goal of the season.

Binnington continued her strong play in the period, coming up with a handful of tremendous saves to keep the game tied at 1-1.

While shorthanded, Robert Morris came into the zone on a 2-on-0 rush, as Kristen Richards tried to beat the RIT goaltender through the legs, but Binnington somehow kept the puck out of the net. Binnington also made a huge save on Vint through traffic from the slot.

This was third of four meetings between the two schools this season, Robert Morris leads the all-time series, 5-4-1. Earlier in the season, Robert Morris won a pair of home games against RIT, winning 2-1 on Dec. 6 and 4-2 on Dec. 7. The Tigers are now 2-1-1 all-time against the Colonials at Ritter Arena.

The two teams wrap up the regular season series on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Tigers now have just two regular season contests remaining at Ritter Arena before the team moves into the Gene Polisseni Center for the 2014-15 season.