ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team opened up the 2018-19 season with a 5-2 win over Wilfrid Laurier University in an exhibition contest from the Gene Polisseni Center Saturday evening.
 
Alden Dupuis (Edmonton, Alberta/Bonnyville Pontiacs) and Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73's) each scored a pair of goals, while Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers) added two assists and Will Calverley (Scarborough, Ontario/Chilliwack Chiefs) also scored. Logan Drackett (Calgary, Alberta/Calgary Canucks) played the first two periods and looked sharp, stopping 12 of 13 shots. Christian Short (Vaughan, Ontario/Surrey Eagles) made a pair of saves in the third period.
 
Jeremy Pullara and Christian Mroczkowski scored for Wilfrid Laurier. Tyler Fassl made 19 saves in two periods, while Jacob Standen played the third period, stopping seven of eight shots.
 
RIT out-shot Wilfrid Laurier 31-16. Both teams were 1-for-4 on the power-play.
 
"Tonight was a good starting point for us," said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. "It was a good game to get under our belt. Our goal is to continue to improve each period and each game as we start the regular season."
 
RIT led 2-0 after the opening 20 minutes and 4-1 after two periods.

Drackett was tested early and had to make a tremendous save on Michael Silveri with the right pad on a 2-on-0 break down low.
 
Dupuis opened the scoring, tipping in a point shot from Darren Brady (Lake Orion, MI/New Jersey Titans) for his first goal of the evening, 6:27 into the contest, making it 1-0 RIT. Jake Hamacher (Corona, CA/Dubuque Fighting Saints) also assisted on the goal. Just 3:12 later, Dupuis struck again, firing in a cross-ice feed from Dan Willett (Bayville, NY/Bloomington Thunder) after Shawn Cameron (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Cumberland Grads) made a strong push towards the net on a rush.
 
RIT would extend its lead to 3-0 at the 5:40 mark of the second period, as Brown took a feed from Abbott Girduckis (Belleville, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) in the slot and fired a shot past Fassl off the post and in.
 
The Golden Hawks would get on the board with 11:49 left in the second period, on the power-play, as Pullara one-timed a pass from Kyle Jenkins from the left circle past Drackett to make it 3-1 Tigers.
 
Calverley gave RIT its three-goal lead back with 7:30 left in the period, as he took a feed from Mark Logan (Calgary, Alberta/Brooks Bandits) on the rush and whistled a shot from the high slot off the post and in. Drackett started the play with a long stretch pass to Logan, who was able to just stay onside. Logan slipped a drop pass back to Calverley for the goal.
 
After Wilfrid Laurier cut the lead to 4-2 midway through the third period, Brown put the game away with a power-play goal with 4:49 left in regulation. Valenzuela fired a puck from the right circle that Brown deflected out of midair, past Standen for his second goal of the night.
 
RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 4-3-0. RIT is 18-1 versus Canadian universities since 1999.

The Tigers open the 2018-19 regular season next weekend, Oct. 12-13 at UMass Lowell of Hockey East. Next Friday's contest starts at 7:15 p.m., while Saturday's contest gets underway at 7:05 p.m.