Men's Hockey | 3/20/2016 1:15:00 PM

ROCHESTER, NY - The No. 4 seed RIT men's hockey team (18-14-6) will face Quinnipiac University (29-3-7), the No. 1 overall seed in the 2016 NCAA Division I men's hockey East Regional on Saturday, March 26 at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. at 4 p.m.

The other two teams in the regional include No. 2 seed UMass Lowell (24-9-5) and third-seeded Yale University (19-8-4). RIT and Quinnipiac will play the early game, while the UMass Lowell and Yale game is slated for 7:30 p.m. RIT's contest on Saturday will be aired on ESPNU, while the second semifinal is on ESPN3. Sunday's regional championship is also on ESPNU. Kevin Brown and Billy Jaffe will be on the call for all three games.
 
All three games can be seen online on Watch ESPN. Both regional semifinals on Saturday will be aired in Canada on TSN GO. Sunday's final will be on TSN 2.

Saturday's winners will meet in the Regional Final on Sunday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m., with the regional champions advancing to the NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla., on April 7 and 9.

Tickets are currently on sale at the Gene Polisseni Center Box Office, and also online at www.ticketmaster.com. Weekend passes will be $80 for adults and $40 for RIT students (one per valid student ID, 100 max) at the Polisseni Center. This will include both semifinal games as well as the final game. There are discounted bundles available for children as well as through the venue however they would not be in the RIT section of 121 and 122. There is a limited amount of tickets available through the Gene Polisseni Center box office. Tickets will be available Tuesday, March 22 and Wednesday March 23 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. as well as Thursday, March 24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., pending all tickets being sold. In Albany, tickets will also be available at the Times Union Center Box Office.

RIT won its second consecutive Atlantic Hockey Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the third time as a Division I program on Saturday, March 19. It is RIT's 16th trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history (Divisions I, II, III). RIT won the 1983 Division II and 1985 Division III National Championships. RIT advanced to the Division I Frozen Four in 2010 and last season, played in the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship game.

RIT knocked off Air Force, 2-1 in overtime in the semifinal on Friday and knocked off top-seed Robert Morris, 7-4 in the championship on Saturday to claim the Atlantic Hockey title. Myles Powell (Courtenay, British Columbia/Cowichan Valley Capitals) was named the Atlantic Hockey Championship Tournament Most Valuable Player after scoring the game-winner on Friday, while tying a career-high with four points on Saturday. Powell, Liam Kerins (Caledon, Ontario/North York Rangers), Chase Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers), Alexander Kuqali (Pittsburgh, PA/Sioux City Musketeers), and goaltender Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) were named to the All-Tournament Team.

The Tigers are 28-12 all-time in the postseason at the Division I level, including a 3-2 mark in NCAA Tournament contests.
 
Quinnipiac enters the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and top-ranked team in Division I, with a 29-3-7 mark. The Bobcats claimed their first ECAC Hockey Whitelaw Cup Saturday night and an NCAA automatic qualifying berth with a 4-1 win over Harvard.  The Bobcats are in the tournament for the fifth time overall and fourth year in a row. Sam Anas leads Quinnipiac with 23 goals (seventh nationally) and 48 points (ninth in Division I), while Travis St. Denis is right behind with 20 goals and 44 points. The Bobcats boast four 35-point scorers and 10 players with at least 20 points. Quinnipiac is out-scoring its opponents 151-77 this season and is in the top-10 in goals for, goals against, power-play and penalty-killing percentage, shots for and against per game, and have the nation's best winning percentage (.833). Michael Garteig has played in all 39 games for Quinnipiac and leads the nation with 29 wins to go along with a 1.90 goals against average, eighth nationally, and .923 save percentage.

UMass Lowell, an at large selection from Hockey East, makes its sixth NCAA tournament appearance with an 24-9-5 record on the year. The River Hawks finished fourth in the Hockey East standings and advanced to the league championship game before falling to Northeastern, 3-2 last Saturday. C.J. Smith leads the River Hawks in scoring with 17 goals and 38 points, while Adam Chapie and Joe Gambardella are right behind with 35 points each. Gambardella leads the way with 27 assists. Lowell has out-scored its opponents, 117-69 this season. Kevin Boyle, the Hockey East co-Player of the Year and finalist for the Mike Richter Award, has seen the majority of the playing time in goal for Lowell, recording a 1.77 goals against average and .935 save percentage, compiling a 23-9-5 record. Boyle's 1.77 goals against average is third among all Division I goaltenders and his .935 save percentage ranks fourth nationally.

Yale, the best defensive team in the country, enters the NCAA Tournament with a 19-8-4 record. An at large pick from the ECAC, the Bulldogs placed second in the league standings and fell to Dartmouth in the quarterfinals. Yale was the 2013 NCAA National Champion, is making its sixth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and features three NHL draft picks. Joe Snively leads the team in scoring with 28 points on 10 goals and 18 assists, while senior Stu Wilson, son of RIT head coach Wayne Wilson, is right behind with 26 points on eight goals and 18 assists. Junior John Hayden leads Yale with 16 goals. The Bulldogs lead all of Division I, allowing just 1.74 goals per game and have the best penalty-killing percentage (.943) nationally. Hobey Baker and Mike Richter Award finalist Alex Lyon has a 19-7-4 record between the pipes for the Bulldogs and leads the nation with both a 1.59 goals against average and a .938 save percentage.

Quinnipiac leads the all-time series between the two schools, 3-1-0. This will be the first meeting between the two schools since Jan. 4, 2007, a 3-2 win for the Tigers at Quinnipiac. The Tigers and Bobcats met three times in RIT's inaugural Division I season, with Quinnipiac winning all three meetings. RIT's first ever regular season game at the Division I level was a 6-2 loss at Quinnipiac in the Quinnipiac Cup Tournament on Oct. 14, 2015.
 
RIT is 1-5-1 all-time vs. UMass Lowell and 0-1-0 against Yale. The Tigers played both teams in 2014-15, falling to Lowell, 7-3 at the Mariucci Classic on Jan. 3, 2015 and 2-0 at Yale on Nov. 28, 2014.

Saturday's RIT game will be broadcast over the airwaves on WITR 89.7 FM and will be shown online on Watch ESPN.