ROCHESTER, NY – Senior Brad McGowan (Langley, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) scored the natural hat-trick, including the game-winning goal 3:06 into the third period and added an assist to lift the RIT men's hockey team (13-14-5, 12-9-5 AHC) to a 4-3 win over No. 19 Robert Morris (21-6-5, 18-4-4 AHC) in front of a season-high crowd of 3,695 fans at the Gene Polisseni Center on Saturday night.

With RIT down 3-1 in the second period, McGowan struck three times in just under a 12-minute span. He also assisted on Josh Mitchell (Osoyoos, British Columbia/Alberni Valley Bulldogs)'s goal for a career-high four point night. Freshman Chase Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) added a pair of assists. In goal, Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) made 26 saves for his seventh win of the season.

Tied at 3-3 early in the third period, McGowan took a feed from Chase Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) after the defenseman intercepted a Robert Morris clearing attempt at the blue line. McGowan took a few strides in and wired a hard wrist shot against the grain to the far side to give RIT a 4-3 lead.

Moments later, RIT's penalty-killing unit had to come up huge, killing off 55 seconds of a Robert Morris 5-on-3 advantage. Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings) won a handful of key face-offs and the penalty-killers did a great job blocking shots.

From there, RIT kept coming and kept the high powered Colonials attack at bay for the rest of the contest.

RIT was 1-for-5 with the man-advantage, while holding Robert Morris in three power-play attempts. The Tigers out-shot Robert Morris, 39-29.

David Friedmann led the Colonials with a goal and an assist. Greg Gibson and Timmy Moore also scored. In goal, Penfield native Terry Shafer made 35 saves in the loss. The loss snapped a nine-game unbeaten streak (8-0-1) for the Colonials, dating back to Jan. 16.

"Our penalty killing came through when we needed it in the third period," said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. "It was a very good weekend overall. We got the split we needed after last night's loss. We are capable of playing for a championship, but still have a lot of hockey left."

The win was RIT's first over a nationally-ranked team this season. RIT has now defeated a nationally-ranked in nine of its 10 Division I seasons and is 12-19-2 all-time against nationally-ranked foes. The Tigers rallied from a two-goal deficit to win for the first time in just over two years.

Neither team scored in the opening period, in which RIT held a 9-6 edge in shots and hit two posts.

McGowan rang a blast off the right post on a power-play midway through the frame, while Mitchell had Shafer beat on a 2-on-1, from in close, but fired it off the crossbar. Later in the period, RIT had 27 seconds of a 5-on-3, but could not get any shots through, as Robert Morris blocked five shots during the advantage. Overall, Robert Morris blocked 12 shots in the period.

As quiet as the first period was goal wise, the second was not, as the two teams erupted for six goals, three apiece to head into the intermission tied 3-3.

The Colonials would open the scoring at the 2:52 mark, as Moore took a feed from Friedmann on a 3-on-2 rush and ripped a hard low shot past Rotolo inside the left post to make it 1-0.

At the 9:41 mark, Mitchell took a feed from McGowan in the neutral zone, sped in and used the defender as a perfect screen, ripping a shot from the high slot over the glove of Shafer for his 12th goal of the year, tying the game at 1-1.

Just seven seconds later, Robert Morris would get the lead right back on a similar shot, as Gibson would win the ensuing faceoff back to Tyson Wilson, take the feed in the neutral zone, use the RIT defenseman as a screen and beat Rotolo high to the blocker for a 2-1 Colonials lead.

Robert Morris would make it 3-1 53 seconds later, as Friedmann would roof a shot over Rotolo from the doorstep after a feed from Brady Ferguson in tight.

RIT would complete a wild sequence of four goals in 1:31, as McGowan tipped a point shot from Brady Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) in close through the armpit of Shafer for his 12th of the year, cutting the Colonials lead to 3-2.

McGowan would tie the game at 3-3 with his 13th goal of the season with 1:12 left in the period, on the power-play. Chase Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) would feed Matt Garbowsky (St. George, Ontario/Powell River Kings) at the right point. Garbowsky took a few strides in and fired a shot that was blocked, but the RIT captain grabbed his own rebound and fired a pass down to McGowan, who one-timed a shot past Shafer on the short side.

With tonight's career-high performance, McGowan now has 33 points this season on 14 goals and 19 assists and 37 goals and 60 assists for 97 points for his RIT career. He is three points shy of becoming the eighth player in RIT's Division I history to reach 100. The hat-trick was the first of his career and second scored by a Tiger this season, as Garbowsky also did so on Nov. 14, 2014 at Canisius. It is the first hat-trick scored at the Gene Polisseni Center.

Robert Morris leads the all-time series between the two schools, 9-5-4 and won the regular season series, 3-1. RIT is 2-3-3 all-time against the Colonials in Rochester. The Tigers and Colonials met earlier in the season on Oct. 30-Nov. 1, with Robert Morris winning both games at home by scores of 6-3 and 4-2. Last night, Cody Wydo scored on a breakaway with 10 seconds left in regulation to lift Robert Morris to a 4-3 win over the Tigers.

RIT wraps up the regular season with a pair of games against Atlantic Hockey foe Mercyhurst next weekend from the Gene Polisseni Center. Both Friday and Saturday's games get underway at 7:05 p.m. The Tigers will enter the weekend fifth in league play with 29 points, while Mercyhurst is just ahead in fourth with 31 points. The top five teams in league play receive a first round bye in the AHC Tournament.