Men's Hockey | 2/14/2018 3:48:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's hockey team will play its final two road games of the 2017-18 season, heading east to take on Atlantic Hockey rival Sacred Heart University. Saturday's game from Webster Bank Arena starts at 7:05 p.m., while Sunday's contest from Ingalls Rink on the campus of Yale University gets underway at 3:05 p.m.
Just 10 points separate all 11 teams in Atlantic Hockey play. RIT is fifth in the league standings with 25 points, while Sacred Heart is 11th with 20 points. Both RIT and Sacred Heart have four games remaining.
RIT (13-15-2, 12-11-1 AHA) heads into the weekend riding a three-game winning streak. The Tigers won three games in four days, earning a pair of crucial road wins at Robert Morris, 4-3 on Friday and 6-2 on Saturday, while knocking off Mercyhurst, 6-5 in overtime Monday.
Bryson Traptow (Calgary, Alberta/Camrose Kodiaks) scored his first two collegiate goals at Robert Morris and was named the Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Week. On Monday,
Alden Dupuis (Edmonton, Alberta/Bonnyville Pontiacs ) scored two goals, including the game-winner in overtime.
Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73's) recorded his first collegiate hat-trick, while
Jordan Peacock (Burlington, Ontario/Burlington Cougars) had a career-high three points on a goal and two assists.
Christian Short (Vaughan, Ontario/Surrey Eagles) won all three games in net and made 29 saves in Monday's victory.
Brown leads the Tigers and is tied for third nationally with 20 goals. He is the sixth Tiger at the Division I level to reach 20 goals in a season. Brown also leads the Tigers with 30 points. Senior
Myles Powell (Courtenay, British Columbia/Cowichan Valley Capitals) is right behind with 29 points on 10 goals and a team-best 19 assists. Powell enters the weekend five points shy of 100 for his career. Junior
Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers), the reigning Atlantic Hockey Offensive Player of the Week, has 27 points on 10 goals and 17 assists. Short has won the last three games in goal for RIT and is 5-4-0 overall with a 3.12 goals average and an .886 save percentage.
Sacred Heart (9-16-4, 7-12-4 AHA) enters the weekend 11th in the Atlantic Hockey standings with 20 points. Like RIT, Sacred Heart enters the weekend having won three straight games in a span of five days. The Pioneers earned two crucial wins over AHA foe Niagara last Friday and Saturday, by scores of 7-1 and 5-3. The Pioneers scored three shorthanded goals in Friday's win. Most recently on Tuesday, Matt Tugnutt scored 2:54 into overtime to lift the Pioneers to a 2-1 win over Air Force at Quinnipiac.
Sacred Heart's top-10 scorers are all freshmen and sophomores. Vito Bavaro leads the Pioneers in scoring with 26 points on 14 goals and 12 assists, while Mark Johnstone is right behind with 25 points. Tugnutt leads the squad with 16 assists. In goal, Brett Magnus is 10-10-2 with a 3.19 goals against average and a .903 save percentage.
This weekend marks the only two regular season meetings between the two schools. RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 22-6-2. The two teams met most recently on Jan. 6-7, 2017, splitting a pair of games at the Gene Polisseni Center, with RIT earning a 3-1 win the first night and Sacred Heart pulling away to win 5-1 the next night. RIT's senior class has only played eight games against the Pioneers entering this weekend and are 6-2-0 in those meetings. Overall, RIT is 11-3-1 all-time against Sacred Heart in Connecticut.
Video for both games are available online. In addition, both contests will be aired on
WITR 89.7 FM and Fox Sports 1280 with Ed Trefzger on the call. Live stats are also available
Saturday and
Sunday.
