Men's Hockey | 2/28/2014 10:36:00 PM

Box Score

BUFFALO, NY– Freshman goaltender Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) recorded his second collegiate shutout, and classmate Danny Smith (Edmonton, Alberta/Sherwood Park Crusaders) scored the game-winning third period goal, as the RIT men's hockey team (10-18-5, 9-14-3 AHA) earned a hard-fought 1-0 win over Atlantic Hockey Association foe Canisius (12-18-3, 11-12-3 AHA) on Friday night from Buffalo State Ice Arena.
 
Just 2:19 into the third period, Smith was on the receiving end of a terrific pass from Adam Mitchell (Crofton, MD/Baystate Breakers) across the circles and easily knocked it home, into the wide open the right side of the net catching Canisius goaltender Tony Capobianco out of position. Brandon Thompson (Vancouver, British Columbia/Handsworth) grabbed an assist on the goal as well, Smith's sixth of the season.
 
For Canisius, Capobianco got the start in net and made 29 saves on 30 total shots, keeping the RIT offense in check for most of the game. Rotolo however, was even more impressive on the night in net for the Tigers, stopping all 27 shots taken by the Golden Griffins in the win.
 
The win puts RIT's win streak at two games, after defeating Air Force last Saturday, 3-2. The last time the Tigers had a two game win streak was back on Jan. 17-18 when they swept a weekend series at home against Army.
 
The Tigers outshot the Golden Griffins 30-27 on the night.
 
"We played strong in lots of areas tonight, specifically our penalty kill and of course Mike [Rotolo] came up big when we needed him to as well," said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. " We needed to win a close, hard fought game like this and now we have to close out the season and Ritter on a high note tomorrow."
 
For the first time in 24 games dating back to Nov. 9, junior captain Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings) was in the starting lineup for RIT and was a spark for the Tigers throughout, winning 11 face-offs and brining back some important leadership out on the ice.
 
Each team was aggressive out of the gate playing some physical defense on both ends. With just over 10 minutes to go in the first the Tigers had a great chance at a goal when an outlet pass found Josh Mitchell (Osoyoos, British Columbia/Alberni Valley Bulldogs) near the blue line and he took it into the offensive zone firing a shot. The rebound save by Capobianco wound up on the stick of Ben Lynch (Blaine, MN/Lincoln Stars) in the slot but his shot was blocked away by the defense and the game remained scoreless.
 
Late in the period a Todd Skirving (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Sioux Falls Stampede) slap shot from the left circle was also left out in front after a Capobianco save but Caleb Cameron (Sunridge, Ontario/Listowel Cyclones), who came crashing towards the net, couldn't handle it.
 
Early in the second RIT was tested after committing a pair of penalties within 30 seconds of each other and giving Canisius a 5-on-3 advantage. The Tigers penalty kill unit held tough though and Rotolo made some terrific pad saves to keep the game scoreless.
 
That defensive stand seemed to ignite the RIT offense, which began to create some consistant pressure in the Canisius zone.
 
With 9:32 remaining in the second, Cameron nearly scored a goal from in the crease when he found a centering pass and fired it five-hole on Capobianco, who was able to fall on it.
 
The Golden Griffins nearly broke the scoreless tie after Rotolo knocked away a shot from the right circle by Taylor Law with his right leg pad, which slid the puck toward the open side of the net. Luckily for the Tigers, no one was on the back end however to shoot it past Rotolo, and it slid just wide of the left post.
 
Smith finally broke the scoreless tie early in the third to put the Tigers up 1-0, and they never looked back. In the waning minutes, a penalty was issued to both teams and made it a 4-on-4 with 1:49 remaining. Canisius called a timeout and pulled Capobianco from net to give themselves the 5-on-4 advantage to close out the game, but Rotolo and the dominant RIT defense held its ground.
 
RIT is now 56-19-1 all-time against Canisius and snapped a four game losing streak to the Golden Griffins dating back to Nov. 10, 2012.
 
The two teams will face off again tomorrow this time at Ritter Arena for the regular season finale, slated for a 7:05 start. A win in tomorrow's contest will guarantee RIT the ninth seed in the AHA Conference Tournament, which as of now would pair them with Holy Cross in the first round. Not only will the six RIT seniors be honored before the game, but it will also mark the last game played in Ritter Arena, where they hold an astounding 433-165-1 record overall, dating back to when the building opened in 1968.
 
"Knowing it's the last game we'll play at Ritter tomorrow is an odd feeling, and I think closing out the rink will bring different feeling for everyone involved," said Wilson.