WORCESTER, MA – Jordan Peacock (Burlington, Ontario/Burlington Cougars) scored with 1:38 left in regulation to snap a 2-2 tie and lift the RIT men's hockey team (10-13-2, 9-9-1 AHA) to a 3-2 victory over Holy Cross (11-10-7, 10-6-6 AHA) at the Hart Center on Saturday evening.
 
Scott Darrar tied the game at 2-2 with 5:02 remaining for the Crusaders. RIT kept up the pressure and in the final two minutes, Regan Seiferling (Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) gloved down a Holy Cross clearing attempt at his own blue line and quickly fired a pass through the neutral zone to Peacock. Peacock sped into the zone and fired a perfectly placed snapshot past Holy Cross goaltender Paul Berrafato into the left corner of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
 
Holy Cross pulled Berrafato for the extra attacker in the final minute and generated a couple good chances, but RIT goaltender Ian Andriano (Barrie, Ontario/Ottawa Jr. Senators) was up to the task, first making a key blocker save on Scott Pooley and another on Danny Lopez in the final 15 seconds.
 
Peacock had a goal and an assist to lead the Tigers, while Shawn Cameron (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Cumberland Grads) and Chase Norrish (Strongfield, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) also scored. Andriano was strong in net, stopping 26 of 28 shots to earn his second win of the season.
 
Darrar and T.J. Moore had a goal and an assist apiece for the Crusaders, while Berrafato made 46 saves on 49 shots.
 
RIT fired a season-high 49 shots on goal in the win, while Holy Cross had 28. Holy Cross was 0-for-4 with the power-play, while RIT was 0-for-2.
 
"We played much harder tonight and earned a gritty, well deserved road win," said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. "It was a good team effort all through the lineup, which we needed."
 
RIT came out strong in the first period, carrying play, while scoring the lone goal and holding a 16-6 edge in shots.
 
The Tigers opened the scoring 5:12 into the contest, as Cameron was able to circle the net and bury a loose puck after Berrafato could not corral the original shot from the right side boards by Bryson Traptow (Calgary, Alberta/Camrose Kodiaks). The goal was Cameron's third of the season.
 
Cameron almost made it 2-0 on the very next shift, as he tried to go high on a 2-on-1 rush, but was denied by Berrafato. Matt Abt (Leduc, Alberta/Whitecourt Wolverines) fired a shot through a screen moments later that beat Berrafato but rang off the crossbar and out. The played was reviewed to see if it bounced off the back bar of the net, but was ruled it hit crossbar. Berrafato made a great glove save on Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73's) during a 2-on-1 rush late in the frame.
 
Andriano had to come up with a big save on Logan Ferguson later in the period, as he got behind the RIT defense. The RIT goaltender stood his ground as Ferguson tried to go to the backhand. Late in the period, Lopez fired a shot off the crossbar off a clean face-off win.
 
Both teams scored once in a wildly entertaining second period of play that featured great chances on both ends, with RIT holding a 17-13 edge in shots.
 
Norrish would score his second goal of the season 6:41 into the period, finishing off a perfectly executed 3-on-2 rush, taking a feed from Peacock and ripping a low hard shot past Berrafato from the slot. Mark Logan (Calgary, Alberta/Brooks Bandits) started the rush and earned the secondary assist on the goal.
 
Holy Cross would cut the lead in half, as Moore roofed a wrist shot from in close just under the crossbar after Andriano made a tremendous save on Pooley, who snuck in behind the RIT defense.
 
RIT had countless chances to add to the lead later in the period, but Berrafato would make a handful of big saves and get help from the right post. Abt made a perfect centering pass to Brown who left all alone in front of the net. Brown looked to have Berrafato cleanly beat but rang the shot off the right post.
 
Lopez just missed tying the game with just under 10 minutes left in the third, as he was left alone in the slot, faked a shot and slid it between the pads of a sliding Andriano, but just wide.
 
Tonight marked the fourth and final regular season meeting between the Tigers and Crusaders in 2017-18. 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. Last night, Berrafato stopped all 29 shots he faced and four different Crusaders scored in a 4-0 win.

RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 27-15-7.  The Tigers are now 7-4-2 on Saturday this season.
 
The Tigers return home to take on Atlantic Hockey rival Bentley University for a pair of games next weekend, Feb. 2-3. Both games from the Gene Polisseni Center get underway at 7:05 p.m.