ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team (10-15-1, 10-10-0 Atlantic Hockey) fell on home ice to the visiting Bentley Falcons (8-12-5, 7-8-4 Atlantic Hockey), 3-2 at the Gene Polisseni Center on Friday evening.

Tied 2-2 in the third period, Drew Callin would deflect a point shot by Connor Brassard past RIT goaltender Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) for a power-play goal with 11:19 left in regulation.

RIT would get a power-play with 6:36 left in regulation and get a few good looks, but could not get the tying goal. The Tigers would pull Rotolo with 1:47 left, but were unable to get any quality chances as the Falcons would hold on.

Jonathan Desbiens and Matt Sieckhaus also scored for the Falcons, while Brassard and Brett Orr had two assists apiece. In goal, freshman Aidan Pelino earned his second win, stopping 34 of 36 shots.

Caleb Cameron (Sundridge, Ontario/Listowel Cyclones) and Darren Brady (Lake Orion, MI/New Jersey Titans) scored for RIT. In goal, Rotolo made 23 saves.

The Tigers out-shot the Falcons, 36-26. Bentley was 2-for-2 on the power-play, while RIT was 0-for-3.

"I thought we played a pretty good game overall, but we need to get some more goals," said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. "The difference was our inability to score goals, while Bentley scored on both their power-play chances. We need to shore our penalty killing, get the big save, and score timely goals."  

Bentley would score the lone goal of the opening period, despite RIT out-shooting the Falcons, 16-9 and dominating play for several stretches.

RIT came out firing with a handful of good chances and five shots on goal over the first three minutes. The Tigers had the Falcons hemmed in their own zone for a good chunk of that stretch.

Bentley would regroup and take a 1-0 lead with 5:24 left in the opening period, when Desbiens took a long stretch pass from Brett Orr while on the power-play, get behind the defense, and place a perfect shot over the shoulder of Rotolo from the left face-off circle for his fifth goal of the season.

RIT just missed converting twice not long after, as Pelino made two big saves on Garrett McMullen (Churchville, NY/Trail Smoke Eaters), who was left all alone in front of the net. The rebound came to Jordan Peacock (Burlington, Ontario/Burlington Cougars), who attempted a wrap around with Pelino out of position, but had it blocked away by a sliding Bentley defenseman. Moments later, Powell took a feed from Caleb Cameron (Sundridge, Ontario/Listowel Cyclones) in the slot and wired a wrist shot past Pelino but off the crossbar and out of play.

RIT would score twice in a span of 1:47 early in the second period to take a 2-1 lead, but the Falcons would score a controversial goal late in the period to tie the game.

The Tigers would tie the game just 1:40 into the period, as Matt Abt (Leduc, Alberta/Whitecourt Wolverines ) would leap at the right point to glove down an attempted clearing pass, make a nice move around a Bentley forward and fire a shot that Pelino made a pad save on. The rebound came right to Cameron in front, who lifted the puck over the goaltender for his sixth goal of the season.

RIT would take its first lead of the game 1:47 later, as Abbott Girduckis (Belleville, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) intercepted a Bentley clearing pass on the right wing side, calmly waited and found Brady hollering for the puck, as he was streaking towards the slot. Brady took the pass and whistled a hard wrist shot past Pelino for his third goal of the season.

Rotolo would make two big saves later in the period to maintain RIT's lead, first smothering a hard shot by Desbie off a face-off win and later, making a nifty glove save on a shorthanded chance by Matt Riggleman.

The Falcons would tie the game in controversial fashion with 2:04 left in the period. Tyler Deresky would come barreling down the left wing on the rush, cut to the net and have his shot stopped by Rotolo. After cutting to the net, Deresky would kick the goalie stick out of Rotolo's hands and with Rotolo on the ice, Sieckhaus collected the loose puck in front and put it over the RIT goaltender for his first goal of the year.

RIT would challenge the ruling on the ice for goaltender interference, but the call on the ice was confirmed and the Tigers lost their timeout.

Shawn Cameron (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Cumberland Grads) had a golden chance in the opening minutes of the third period, as a loose puck came to him at the side of the net with Pelino out of position, but Callin was able to block the scoring chance and keep the game tied.

Tonight marked the third of four regular season meetings between the two schools this season, as RIT is 2-1 against Bentley. On Oct. 28-29, the Tigers won the first two meetings at Bentley by scores of 4-1 and 6-3. Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73's) had three goals and two assists in the weekend series, including a career-high four-point effort in the 6-3 win. RIT is 21-12-2 all-time against the Falcons.

The Tigers and Falcons complete their regular season series on Saturday evening from the Gene Polisseni Center at 7:05 p.m. Admission is free for all RIT students with vaild student ID (one ticket per person).