ROCHESTER, NY – Jake Hamacher (Corona, CA/Dubuque Fighting Saints) scored a pair of goals to lift the RIT men's hockey team (12-9-3, 10-7-3 AHA) to a 4-2 win over Army West Point (8-13-3, 7-8-3 AHA) in front of 3,372 fans from the Gene Polisseni Center Saturday night.
 
Hamacher scored RIT's first two goals and was on the ice for RIT's third and fourth goals, finishing plus-3 on the night. Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73's) and Shawn Cameron (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Cumberland Grads) also scored for the Tigers, while Dan Willett (Bayville, NY/Bloomington Thunder) dished out a pair of assists. Goaltender Ian Andriano (Barrie, Ontario/Ottawa Jr. Senators) picked up his second consecutive win, stopping 33-of-35 shots.
 
Brendan Soucie and Taylor Maruya scored the Army West Point, while Dalton MacAfee added two assists. Trevin Kozlowski took the loss in net, stopping 25 of 28 shots.
 
Army West Point out-shot RIT, 35-29. RIT was 1-for-6 on the power-play, while Army was 1-for-4.
 
"Getting four points was big for us this weekend," said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. "I thought we responded really well and kept our poise tonight. We moved the puck really well and were strong in transition tonight."
 
Army opened the scoring with a power-play goal 7:39 in, as Soucie wired a shot through a screen from the face-off circle for his eighth goal of the season.
 
Andriano had to come up big later in the period, robbing TMaruya on a shorthanded breakaway attempt. Soucie fired a shot off the post on a different power-play late in the period.
 
RIT would tie the game at 1-1 just 3:58 into the second period, as Hamacher took a feed from Alden Dupuis (Edmonton, Alberta/Bonnyville Pontiacs) in the Army zone and fired a hard wrist shot over the glove of Kozlowski, just under the crossbar and in for his ninth goal of the season.
 
The Tigers would take control with a pair of goals 35 seconds apart early in the third period. Hamacher would score his second goal of the night and 10th of the season on a delayed penalty just 1:38 into the frame, firing home a rebound from the left side into the open net after a great chance by Cameron went wide.
 
On the ensuing power-play, Adam Brubacher (Elmira, Ontario/Powell River Kings) sent a pass to Dan Willett (Bayville, NY/Bloomington Thunder), who fired a one-timer from the left point that deflected off the body of Brown in front and past Kozlowski to make it 3-1 Tigers. The goal was Brown's team-leading 12th of the season.
 
Army would cut RIT's lead to 3-2 with 2:17 left in regulation with the extra-attacker, as Maruya fired a shot from the slot that deflected off of two RIT players in front and past Andriano.
 
Cameron would put the game away with exactly one minute left, deflecting a centering pass in his own zone down the ice, while out-racing everyone else down the ice for the empty-net tally.
 
With the win, RIT moved into sole possession of third place in the Atlantic Hockey standings with 23 points. RIT finished the month of January with a 5-1-2 mark and is 6-1-2 over its last nine games.
 
Last night, the line of Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers), Abbott Girduckis (Belleville, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) and Brown combined for eight points, while Regan Seiferling (Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan/Yorkton Terriers) scored his first collegiate goal in RIT's 4-2 win.
 
RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 21-3-6. The Tigers are now 20-1-4 against the Black Knights over the last 24 meetings, out-scoring them 95-47 over that stretch.
 
RIT is right back in action with two home games against No. 17 Arizona State University from the Gene Polisseni Center on Friday, Feb. 1 and Saturday. Feb. 2. Both games get underway at 7:05 p.m. These are RIT's final two non-conference games of the 2018-19 regular season.