Men's Hockey | 11/14/2019 3:09:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY -- When RIT's men's hockey team returns to the ice of the Gene Polisseni Center this weekend, they'll be very familiar with their opponent.
Maybe too familiar.
As often as Sacred Heart University and RIT have faced off over the past two seasons, it's been more like a baseball schedule than a hockey schedule.
This weekend's two-game set (7:05 p.m. on Friday, 5:05 p.m. on Saturday) will be the 13th and 14th times the teams have played since December of 2017.
"In college hockey that's almost unheard of," said RIT coach Wayne Wilson, whose team sits one point behind front-running Robert Morris in Atlantic Hockey. The Tigers are 7-1-2 overall and 4-0-1-1 with 14 points in league play. Sacred Heart is 4-5-1, 4-3-0-0 and in third place with 12 points.
In 2017-18, RIT and Sacred Heart split their two-game series in the regular season before the Pioneers ousted the Tigers from the Atlantic Hockey tournament by winning the three-game series.
Last year the teams met four times during the regular season, with the Pioneers winning three games, including twice at The Gene. But RIT turned the tables in March by winning the playoff series 2-games-to-1.
"We know each other well and I think it will be a good weekend of hockey," Wilson said.
The Tigers lone loss came way back on Oct. 12, 3-1 to then-No. 12-ranked Ohio State. The Buckeyes are now ranked 11th in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 15 poll. RIT received six voting points this week, which unofficially has them tied for 20th.
Last weekend RIT gained a home tie with Niagara University on Friday (Niagara did gain the extra point in the standings by scoring in the unofficial overtime period) before posting a 4-1 road victory on Saturday.
"I thought we played five good periods," Wilson said. "We gave up a goal 36 seconds into Friday's game, so I guess if anything we needed to start better."
Through 10 games the Tigers have outscored the opposition 30-17, including 12-7 in the third. While they aren't scoring at an exceptional rate, the team's overall defensive game has been stout.
"We're still getting contributions from all the different lines," Wilson said. "If the first line doesn't score or we don't get a power-play goal, we're still getting goals, and that means the burden isn't on that first line to produce all the time.
"And we're not giving up much, and that will become a little more important as the season goes along."
