WORCESTER, MA – The RIT men's hockey team (9-12-2, 8-8-1 AHA) suffered a 4-0 loss at College of the Holy Cross (10-9-7, 9-5-6 AHA) on Friday night from the Hart Center.
 
T.J. Moore, Danny Lopez, Michael Laffin and Kevin Darrar scored for the Crusaders, who maintained their hold on first place in the league standings. Goaltender Paul Berrafato was perfect on the night, stopping all 29 shots he faced for the shutout.
 
RIT goaltender Ian Andriano (Barrie, Ontario/Ottawa Jr. Senators) stopped a career-high 32 shots in the loss. Adam Brubacher (Elmira, Ontario/Powell River Kings) led the Tigers with five shots on goal.
 
Holy Cross out-shot RIT, 36-29. The Tigers attempted 60 shots on the evening, with Holy Cross blocking 18 of those chances. Holy Cross was 1-for-6 on the power-play, while RIT was 0-for-3.
 
"I thought Holy Cross set the tone early and earned the win tonight," said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. "We knew Holy Cross was going to come out hard and did not have an answer. They blocked a lot of shots and did not allow us a lot of clean looks."
 
Holy Cross would score the lone goal in the opening period, holding a 12-4 edge in shots on goal. Moore opened the scoring 5:31 in, chipping in a loose puck that bounced off the back boards right to the side of the net after a great save by Andriano on Darrar.
 
Valenzuela just missed tying the game for RIT right before the halfway mark of the period, ringing a shot past Berrafato, but off the left post and out on the rush.
 
RIT held a 16-11 edge in shots in the second period and generated several good chances, but it was the Crusaders who added to their lead, scoring twice to lead 3-0 after 40 minutes.
 
Berrafato made a great save on Alden Dupuis (Edmonton, Alberta/Bonnyville Pontiacs ), who redirected a pass from Regan Seiferling (Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) from the slot early in the period. Later in the period, Berrafato robbed Brubacher with a sliding pad save on a one-timer attempt from the right circle on a power-play.
 
Holy Cross would make it 2-0 right after the halfway point of the period on a power-play, as Lopez fired a shot through traffic from the left side for his 11th goal of the season.
 
Laffin would be the recipient of a fortuitous bounce on a pass from Tommy Muratore that bounced off a Tiger late in the period. Laffin collected the feed and roofed a shot under the crossbar from in close to make it 3-0.
 
RIT nearly got on the scoreboard four minutes into the period, as the line of Myles Powell (Courtenay, British Columbia/Cowichan Valley Capitals), Abbott Girduckis (Belleville, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) and Dupuis cycled the puck behind the net. A wrap around attempt looked to be held by Berrafato, but was reviewed to see if it crossed the goal line. Despite a long video review, it was confirmed that the puck did not cross the line.

Darrar put the game away with 5:05 left, getting behind the defense and scoring on a breakaway.

Tonight marked the third of four meetings between the Tigers and Crusaders this season. On Dec. 1-2, the two teams split a pair of games at the Gene Polisseni Center, with Holy Cross winning game one 4-2 and RIT earning a 5-3 win in game two. Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73's) had two goals and an assist in the two games for RIT, while Mark Logan (Calgary, Alberta/Brooks Bandits) scored the game-winner on Dec. 2.

RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 26-15-7.
 
RIT and Holy Cross wrap up the weekend series on Saturday night from the Hart Center at 7:05 p.m.