ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team (9-11-1, 9-6-0 Atlantic Hockey) had its six-game winning streak against Atlantic Hockey foes snapped, falling to Sacred Heart (7-13-2, 4-12-0 Atlantic Hockey), 5-1 at the Gene Polisseni Center on Saturday night.

The Pioneers scored five unanswered goals. Erlich Doerksen and Coltyn Hansen scored goals six seconds apart in the second period for the Pioneers. Doerksen added a third period goal, while Stephen Hladin and Justin Danforth also scored. Mitch Nylen dished out a pair of assists for the Pioneers. In net, Brett Magnus made 32 saves for his fifth win of the season.

Matt Abt (Leduc, Alberta/Whitecourt Wolverines ) scored RIT's lone goal late in the first period, his first of the season. In goal, Mike Rotolo (Rochester, NY/Cedar Rapids Roughriders) took the loss, stopping 27 of 32 shots. Christian Short (Vaughan, Ontario/Surrey Eagles) played the final eight minutes, stopping all three shots he faced.

Sacred Heart out-shot RIT, 35-33. The Pioneers were 1-for-4 on the power-play, while RIT was 0-for-4.

"I was disappointed with our play overall on the weekend, even though I thought we played better in the first period tonight and up until (Sacred Heart) scored the two quick goals," said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. "I thought Sacred Heart was the more desperate team in the third period and did the little things that won them the game."

RIT would score the lone first period goal late in the opening frame, as Abt would take a feed from Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers) down in the left corner, while RIT was cycling in the zone, swoop to the net and beat Magnus from in tight for his first goal of the season and fifth of his career. Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73's) also drew an assist on the goal after Liam Kerins (Caledon, Ontario/North York Rangers) caused a turnover with a strong body check deep in the Pioneers zone.

The Tigers out-shot Sacred Heart, 15-12 in the opening period, with each team going scoreless on one power-play opportunity.

Sacred Heart would stun the Polisseni Center faithful by scoring two goals in a span of six seconds midway through the second period to erase a 1-0 deficit and take a 2-1 lead.

With 10:45 left in the period, Doerkson fired a shot through traffic from the point past Rotolo after good work down low in Tigers zone by Hansen helped force a giveaway off of Nick Lotito's shin pad, tying the game at 1-1. The goal was Doerksen's second of the season.

Right off the ensuing neutral zone faceoff that RIT won, Hansen stole an attempted breakout pass at the RIT blueline, raced in all alone on Rotolo and beat him cleanly over the glove for his second goal of the season with 10:39 left.

Rotolo had to come up big with a few acrobatic saves earlier in the period, as Sacred Heart had several good looks. Magnus made a big save on Ryan Kruper (Sherwood Park, Alberta/Sherwood Park Crusaders) from the slot late in the period on a rebound of a shot from Kerins.

The Pioneers scored three times in the third to put the game away.

Right before Sacred Heart went up 3-1, Myles Powell (Courtenay, British Columbia/Cowichan Valley Capitals) and Abt raced in on a shorthanded 2-on-1. Powell, who has two shorthanded goals this season, cut around a defender and centered a pass to Abt at the side of the net, which was deflected just wide. The Pioneers would come back down into the RIT zone, get the power-play set up and score a big goal with 11:14 left, as Hladin deflected in a point shot from Nylen past Rotolo.

Just 38 seconds later, Danforth buried a rebound in front off a shot from Nylen and made it 4-1. Doerksen would whistle a shot through traffic past a screened Rotolo with 8:01 left to complete the scoring.

Last night, Brown scored two third period goals and Rotolo made 20 saves as RIT defeated the Pioneers, 3-1. Nathan Perry made 39 stops in net for the Pioneers.

RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 22-6-2. RIT had won the last five meetings between the two schools before tonight.

RIT returns to action next weekend, as they head east to take on league foe American International from the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, Mass. Friday's contest begins at 7:05 p.m. while Saturday's starts at 2:05 p.m.