Men's Hockey | 12/11/2018 2:39:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team plays its final game of the 2018 calendar year and fall semester against Atlantic Hockey rival Niagara University at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 15 from the Gene Polisseni Center.
Tickets for Saturday's game are available at the Gene Polisseni Center Box Office or online at
www.rittickets.com.
Tonight's game marks the first of three consecutive meetings between the two schools. RIT and Niagara come off the holiday break to play a home-and-home series against each other on Friday, Jan. 4 at Dwyer Arena and Saturday, Jan. 5 from the Polisseni Center. The two schools will also play in Niagara on Feb. 27.
RIT (6-8-1, 4-6-1 AHA) is looking to end the semester with a win after dropping a pair of home contests to Sacred Heart last weekend. RIT fell 4-3 in overtime Friday night and 6-4 Saturday.
Ryan Kruper (Sherwood Park, Alberta/Sherwood Park Crusaders),
Adam Brubacher (Elmira, Ontario/Powell River Kings) and
Alden Dupuis (Edmonton, Alberta/Bonnyville Pontiacs) scored for the Tigers on Friday. Brubacher scored two goals and added an assist, while
Shawn Cameron (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Cumberland Grads) and
Bryson Traptow (Calgary, Alberta/Camrose Kodiaks) also tallied. Goaltender
Logan Drackett (Calgary, Alberta/Calgary Canucks) made 54 saves in the two games.
Abbott Girduckis (Belleville, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) leads the team in scoring through 15 games this season with 13 points on five goals and eight assists. Brubacher, who the reigning Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week, is coming off a three-goal, four-point weekend, is right behind with 12 points, while
Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73's) has a team-best six goals.
Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers), who has 11 points this season, is among the national leaders in face-off winning percentage, at 59.7 percent. Drackett, the Atlantic Hockey Goaltender of the Month in November, has played in all 15 games in net and has a 2.52 goals against average and a .915 save percentage.
Niagara (8-9-1, 7-4-1 AHA) is coming off a home split versus non-conference foe Colgate University last weekend. Niagara knocked off Colgate, 4-2 on Friday, before falling 2-0 on Saturday. Niagara is 1-4-0 over its last five games after a six-game unbeaten streak (5-0-1) from Nov. 3 to Nov. 23. Noah Delmas leads the team in scoring with 17 points on seven goals and 10 assists. Eric Cooley has a team-best 11 assists and is right behind with 15 points. In net, Brian Wilson has played in 15 games, with an 8-6-1 mark, 2.55 goals against average and a .916 save percentage.
Niagara leads the all-time series between the two schools, 18-10-13. The Tigers are 7-4-3 against the Purple Eagles since the start of the 2014-15 season. The two schools played a pair of tight games in Niagara last season, with the Purple Eagles coming out with a 4-3 win, while RIT rallied with two late goals for a 2-2 tie the next night.
Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers) leads all active Tigers in career scoring against Niagara with 10 points in 11 games.
Saturday's game will air on CW Rochester (Digital - 13.2, DirecTV – 14 and Spectrum – 16) and
stream live with Gene Battaglia and John DiTullio on the call from the Polisseni Center. The pregame show with host Kevin Roche airs Saturday at 6:30 p.m. In addition, the game will be aired on
WITR 89.7 FM and Fox Sports 1280 with Ed Trefzger and Scott Biggar on the call.
Live stats are also available.
Come out to the Gene Polisseni Center and support the Tigers in 2018-19.
