ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT women's hockey team (15-15-3, 10-7-2 AHA) celebrated senior night by defeating College Hockey America rival Syracuse (18-12-3, 9-7-3 CHA) by a score of 3-1 in front of 1,102 fans in the regular season finale at Ritter Arena on Friday.

RIT moves into sole possession of third place in the CHA standings with 22 points, one ahead of Syracuse. Both teams clinched home ice for the first round of the CHA playoffs. A RIT win or tie at Syracuse tomorrow afternoon would wrap up third place in the CHA standings. A Syracuse win would drop RIT to fourth.

Before the game, RIT honored seniors Erin Zach (Elmira, Ontario/Cambridge Fury), Kourtney Kunichika (Fullerton, CA/LA Selects), and Melissa Bromley (Aurora, Ontario/Aurora Panthers). The trio has led has led RIT to an excellent 85-34-11 record in four years, including a 45-12-5 mark at Ritter Arena.

Zach and Kunichika starred on the ice tonight, scoring a goal and an assist apiece. Kolbee McCrea (Wawa, Ontario/Burlington Barracudas) added her Division I team record tying 16th goal of the season. Zach was named the game's second star, while Kunichika was the third star.

In goal, Ali Binnington (Oakville, Ontario/Mississauga Chiefs) continued her tremendous play, stopping 23 shots for her 11th win of the season. Binnington is now 7-4-1 with 1.38 goals against average and .953 save percentage in College Hockey America play this season. She was named the game's first star.

Margot Scharfe scored Syracuse's lone goal in the first period. In net, Jenesica Drinkwater made 29 saves in defeat.

RIT was 1-for-7 with the man-advantage, generating 15 shots on the power-play. RIT's penalty killing unit was excellent, killing off all five Syracuse power-play attempts.

"That was a really well played game by our team tonight," said RIT head coach Scott McDonald. "We would like to get this momentum going and go into the playoffs on a high note. We are getting going at the right time and generated a lot of good chances tonight."

Both teams scored once in a evenly played first period, in which Syracuse held an 11-10 edge in shots.

Taylor Thurston (Kanata, Ontario/All Saints Catholic) had a great chance for RIT on a point-blank chance in front five minutes in, but Drinkwater stood her ground and made a great save.

RIT got on the board first, at the 10:56 mark, as Kunichika fired a shot from the slot that was stopped by Drinkwater. Drinkwater tried to corral the rebound, but passed it right back to Kunichika, who was able to deposit the puck into the open net for her eighth goal of the season.

RIT nearly made it 2-0 moments later, as a loose puck came to Zach with an open net from the high slot, but Syracuse defender Brittany Krebs dove to keep the puck out.

The Orange tied the game at the 15:14 mark, as Scharfe tipped in a point shot from Nicole Renault after Allie LaCombe cleanly won a faceoff in the RIT zone.

RIT scored two second period goals to take a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.

Zach made it 2-1 Tigers just 29 seconds into the period on the power-play, as her shot from the point through traffic eluded Drinkwater for her sixth goal of the season. Kunichika got the puck to Lindsay Grigg (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Hornets) on the right side. Grigg was able to feed Zach at the point, as her shot caught Drinkwater going the other way.

RIT was awarded two more power-plays moments later, including 39 seconds of a 5-on-3 power-play, but were unable to score.

At the 12:57 mark, McCrea parked herself in front of the Syracuse net and while falling, took a feed from Zach and beat Drinkwater through the legs for her team-best 16th goal of the season. Marissa Maugeri (Ajax, Ontario/Durham West Lightning) also assisted on the goal, helping Zach cycle the puck down low.

RIT got into penalty problems later in the period, but Binnington and the RIT penalty-killers did a great job keeping Syracuse off the board.

The Tigers dominated the third period, out-shooting Syracuse, 11-6, and generating several chances. RIT's defense was trermendous, limiting the Orange to very little in the way of quality chances.

Tonight was the final regular season home game at Ritter Arena, as RIT will host the best-of-three College Hockey America First Round series against either Lindenwood or Penn State. Next season, RIT moves into the 4,200-seat Gene Polisseni Center.

Tonight's meeting was the third of four meetings between the two schools. Syracuse leads the all-time series between the two schools, 5-2-1. Before tonight, all seven previous games ended in a tie or one goal difference, with four going to overtime. RIT is 2-1 against Syracuse this season, winning 4-3 on a shorthanded goal from Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School) with 1:17 left on Jan. 10, while Syracuse won 5-4 in overtime a week later.

The two teams wrap up the regular season on Saturday from Tennity Ice Pavillion in Syracuse at 4 p.m.