ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT men's hockey team plays its second home-and-home series of the winter opposite Niagara this weekend, hitting the road on Friday before playing its final home game of the regular season on Saturday. Both games are scheduled to face-off at 7:05 p.m.

RIT looks to bounce back from a pair of losses at Mercyhurst last weekend, as the Lakers won a 1-0 shutout on Friday before taking a 4-2 victory on Saturday. Niagara defeated Canisius, 4-1, on the road last Friday for its fourth-straight win before falling 5-1 at home to the Griffs on Saturday.
 
The Tigers are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games with Niagara, including a 6-5 OT road victory on Jan. 22 earlier this season to follow up a 5-3 home loss the night before. In the victory, the Tigers led, 5-3, after two periods before Niagara scored twice to knot the game with 15:47 left in the third. Scoreless the rest of regulation, sophomore defenseman Aiden Hansen-Bukata scored his first goal in a Tiger uniform 48 seconds into overtime to seal the win. He also logged an assist for his second career multi-point game after assisting two goals the night before. Sophomore forward Cody Laskosky was credited with a career-high four assists while senior forward Will Calverley added three. Senior forward Nick Bruce logged his second two-goal game of the year and first since the team's 4-3 win over visiting Holy Cross (Nov. 20). Junior goaltender Kolby Matthews made 26 saves.
 
Friday night saw the home-standing Tigers trail, 5-1, entering the final minute of regulation before senior forward Jake Joffe scored with 56 seconds on the clock and again 30 seconds later for his first career multi-goal game. Freshman goaltender Tommy Scarfone totaled 34 saves, including 19 in the first period.
 
FOLLOW LIVE
Watch: FloHockey.tv/events
Saturday PxP: Gene Battaglia, John DiTullio
Watch (Saturday): MY18 (Ch. 18 and over the air Ch. 46.1)
Local Audio: WITR 89.7 FM or FOX Sports 1280 AM
Web Audio: witr.rit.edu or foxsports1280.iheart.com
PxP/Color: Scott Biggar, Matt Campbell
Live Stats: Friday | Saturday
Twitter: @RITMHKY
 
TIGER TRACKS
RIT looks to bounce back from a pair of losses at Mercyhurst last weekend. RIT out-shot Mercyhurst both nights, finishing with a 37-28 advantage on Friday and 44-34 on Saturday, but combined to go 0-for-6 on the power play, including a 0-for-5 showing on Friday. Trailing, 4-0, early in the third period, freshman forward Tanner Andrew put the Tigers on the board with 14:14 left in regulation with his first goal in an RIT sweater. Freshman forward Grady Hobbs closed the night with a 6-on-5 goals with 48 seconds left in regulation.
 
Freshman goaltender Tommy Scarfone totaled 27 saves on Friday and then stopped 30 in Friday's decision. He centered the week ranked third in Atlantic Hockey with a 2.92 goals against average and seventh with a .907 save percentage.
 
SENIOR MOMENT
Prior to Saturday night's game, RIT will honor the 10 Tigers making their final regular-season home appearance in the Gene Polisseni Center. Ian Andriano, Spencer Berry, Nick Bruce, Will Calverley, Jake Hamacher, Jake Joffe, Merritt Oszytko, Andrew Petrucci, Kobe Walker and Dan Willett will all be recognized during the Senior Night festivities.
 
GAME ON...AND ON AND ON
Senior defenseman Dan Willett and senior forward Jake Hamacher are on pace to break the Atlantic Hockey record for career games played this weekend. Ranked first and second, respectively in the RIT D1-era record books, Willett made his 158th appearance during last weekend's Mercyhurst series while Hamacher played his 157th game. Willett enters the weekend tied for first in conference history with Mercyhurst's Tyler Shiplo (2011-15) and Canisius' Ben Danford (2010-14), while Hamacher is fourth.
 
A DAN-DY AT BOTH ENDS OF THE ICE
Senior defenseman Dan Willett entered the week third in the nation and first in the conference with 74 blocked shots while leading Atlantic Hockey with 72 career assists. He landed his second Atlantic Hockey Defensive Player of the Week award (Feb. 7) after notching what proved to be the game-winning goal along with seven blocked shots during the 5-1 win over Sacred Heart (Feb. 2). He also logged two assists and blocked two shots in the 4-4 tie with AIC (Feb. 5).
 
GREEN EGGS AND HAMACHER
Senior forward Jake Hamacher notched an assist for his 100th career point during the Tigers' 4-4 tie versus AIC (Feb. 5), becoming the 14th Division I-era Tiger to achieve the milestone. He leads all of Atlantic Hockey with 101 career points, while ranking second in both goals (42) and assists (59).
 
START ME UP
RIT is 9-1-1 when scoring first this season and 9-0-1 when holding a lead after two periods. However, the Tigers are 1-13-2 when trailing after 40 minutes of play.
 
MAGIC NUMBER
RIT's is 11-2-3 when holding opponents to three goals or less and 9-2-1 when holding opponents under three goals. Last Friday's 1-0 Mercyhurst setback was only the second time this season the Tigers lost when holding an opponent under three goals and first since falling to visiting Arizona State, 2-1, on Jan. 14.
 
WILL POWER
Senior forward Will Calverley ranks second in Atlantic Hockey with 13 goals. Nominated for the 2022 Hobey Baker Award, annually presented to the nation's top NCAA men's hockey player, The Scarborough, Ontario native leads all Atlantic Hockey players with 45 career goals and is second with 86 career points in 117 games over the last four seasons. Calverley was named only the fourth All-American in Division-I era history (AHCA Second-Team) last season while earning Atlantic Hockey-West Co-Player of the Year and Best Defensive Forward plaudits.
 
RATED ROOKIE
Freshman forward Carter Wilkie is tied for the team lead with 22 points, including a team-high 12 assists, while ranking second with 10 goals. He was named Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Month for both November and December and has also landed conference Rookie of the Week recognition five times this season. Wilkie is tied for 12th among the nation's first-year players in scoring and is also tied for fifth in goals. Wilkie was credited with the overtime game-winning goal and assisted the game-tying goal in RIT's 3-2 victory at AIC (Nov. 7) and logged the game-winner in the Tigers' 3-2 win over visiting Holy Cross (Nov. 19). He also scored the overtime game-winning goal in the Tigers' 3-2 upset of then No. 13 Notre Dame (Oct. 21).
 
ABOUT THE PURPLE EAGLES
Niagara is 4-2 since splitting two games versus RIT on Jan. 21-22, including a sweep of Bentley, 6-5 and 3-2 (Feb. 4-5) and a split with Canisius (W, 4-1, L, 5-1) last Friday and Saturday. Ryan Naumovski leads the Purple Eagles with 21 points and 15 assists, including five total assists in the Bentley series. Senior forward Ryan Cox leads the team with 10 goals, including two tallies in last Friday's Canisius win. Junior forward Albin Nilsson is second for Niagara with 20 points, eight goals and 12 assists, including a goal and two assists during the Bentley series. Senior goaltender Chad Veltri is 10-8-1 this season with a 2.95 goals against average and a .899 save percentage. He made a season-high 38 saves in the opening Bentley victory and also stopped 33 shots in last Saturday's Canisius loss for his fifth 30-plus save effort this winter.