ROCHESTER, NY – Ryan Schmelzer scored 22 seconds into overtime to lift visiting Canisius College (12-9-2, 12-5-0 Atlantic Hockey) to a 5-4 win over the RIT men's hockey team (8-12-2, 7-8-1 Atlantic Hockey) at the Gene Polisseni Center Friday night.
 
As overtime begin, Dylan McLaughlin carried the puck into the RIT zone, with Schmelzer appearing to be offside. Play continued with Jeff Murray knocking down a loose puck after a RIT clearing attempt. The puck came right to McLaughlin, who centered a goal mouth pass to Schmelzer, who tapped it in past RIT goaltender Ian Andriano (Barrie, Ontario/Ottawa Jr. Senators) for the game-winner.

Schmelzer's goal capped off a wild final 13 minutes of play in which the two teams combined for six goals, as RIT rallied from two goals down to force overtime.
 
McLaughlin, who assisted on the game-winner, had a four-point night, with two goals and two assists. Schmelzer and Murray had a goal and two assists apiece, while Nolan Sheeran also scored for Canisius. Goaltender Daniel Urbani made 25 saves.
 
Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73's) scored a goal and added an assist, while Ryan Kruper (Sherwood Park, Alberta/Sherwood Park Crusaders) and Jordan Peacock (Burlington, Ontario/Burlington Cougars) had two assists apiece. Mark Logan (Calgary, Alberta/Brooks Bandits), Shawn Cameron (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Cumberland Grads) and Adam Brubacher (Elmira, Ontario/Powell River Kings) also scored for the Tigers. Andriano made his first collegiate start between the pipes for RIT and stopped 27 shots, including several key saves throughout.
 
Canisius out-shot RIT, 32-29, The Golden Griffins were 1-for-5 on the power-play, while RIT was 0-for-2.
 
"I liked our resiliency and character tonight, rallying from two goals down to force overtime," said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. "I thought we were very loose defensively in the neutral zone and gave up too many good chances throughout, so we need to tighten that up for tomorrow."
 
Canisius opened the scoring 7:17 into the contest, as McLaughlin went around a Tiger defenseman in the zone, cut to the net and swept a shot past Andriano for his 13th goal of the season.
 
RIT answered back moments later, as Logan tipped in a feed from Peacock off the rush past Urbani for his second goal of the year, tying the game at 1-1. Kruper also assisted on the goal.
 
McLaughlin struck again, this time on the power-play with 4:35 left in the opening period, taking a feed from Schmelzer on the rush, getting behind the defense and sliding the puck around Andriano for his second of the game and 14th goal of the year.
 
Canisius would out-shoot RIT, 11-6 in the second period on the strength of three power-plays, but Andriano would stand tall, making several key saves to keep it 2-1 after 40 minutes of play.
 
Andriano kept it a 2-1 game six minutes into the third period by robbing Schmelzer on a breakaway. Moments later, Sheeran collected a loose puck in the slot after a centering feed from Felix Chamberland that deflected off a Tiger and ripped a shot in from the slot to make it 3-1 Canisius.
 
RIT would respond with two goals in 17 seconds to quickly tie the game at 3-3. Just 26 seconds after Sheeran's goal, Brown tipped in a shot by Chris McKay (Edmonton, Alberta/Sherwood Park Crusaders) for his team-best 14th goal of the season to cut the Canisius lead to 3-2. Matt Abt (Leduc, Alberta/Whitecourt Wolverines) also assisted on the goal. Seconds later, that line connected again, as Cameron collected a loose puck in front after Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers)'s pass glanced off Brown and waited out Urbani to flip a shot into the top corner of the net for his second goal of the season, tying the game.
 
Canisius would regain the lead with 6:19 left, as Murray one-timed a cross-ice pass from McLaughlin off a 4-on-2 odd-man rush past a sliding Andriano for his third goal of the season to make it 4-3.
 
Brubacher wristed a shot through traffic past Urbani with 2:19 left in regulation to tie the game at 4-4 and send the game to overtime. Right after Brubacher's goal, Andriano made a game-saving glove save on McLaughlin, who came in all alone on a breakaway.
 
RIT leads the all-time series, 60-24-2, including a 21-15-1 edge since the Tigers moved to Division I in 2005.
 
Freshman forward Nick Bruce (Fall River, Nova Scotia/Johnstown Tomahawks) made his collegiate debut for the Tigers.

RIT and Canisius will conclude the weekend series on Saturday evening from the Polisseni Center at 7:05 p.m.