ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT men's hockey team welcomes AIC to the Gene Polisseni Center this Friday (7:05 PM) and Saturday (5:05 PM) for a pair of Atlantic Hockey contests with four weeks left in the regular season. The Tigers moved into a tie for third place in the conference standings with three wins and tie over its last four games, including a convincing 5-1 win over Sacred Heart on Tuesday, while the Yellowjackets split two games with visiting Holy Cross last week, including a 5-4 setback on Sunday which snapped an 11-game winning-streak. 

RIT leads the all-time series with AIC, 32-9-2, including a 6-4-0 mark over the last 10 meetings opposite the three-time Atlantic Hockey Champions. The teams split a pair of games in Springfield earlier this season, with the Tigers bouncing back from a 7-3 opening loss (Nov. 6) to win the following afternoon, 3-2, in overtime on a goal by freshman forward Carter Wilkie. 

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TIGER TRACKS
RIT followed up a 2-1 win and a 3-3 tie at Bentley last weekend with a 5-1 victory over Sacred Heart on Tuesday. Sophomore defenseman Dimitri Mikrogiannakis scored his first goal in a Tiger uniform before senior forward Jake Hamacher logged the game-winner with under seven minutes remaining in the second period to make freshman goaltender Tommy Scarfone's 29-save outing stand up last Friday. After snow pushed Saturday's  rematch to Sunday, Hamacher scored another two goals before junior forward Andrew Rinaldi intercepted a pass and scored the game-tying tally with 9:10 left in regulation on Sunday. Junior goaltender Kolby Matthews totaled 26 saves to preserve the tie before three stopping all penalty shootout attempts he faced. Senior forward Jake Joffe converted the lone attempt as RIT earned the extra conference point, 1-0.

The Tigers finished the road trip opposite Sacred Heart on Tuesday with a game postponed from Jan. 2 due to COVID protocol. Skating on neutral ice at Army's Tate Rink, RIT broke open a 1-1 game with three unanswered goals during a nine-minute stretch of the second period en route to the four-goal victory. Rinaldi scored another two goals while freshman forward Carter Wilkie added a goal and an assist. Scarfone only needed 14 saves to earn his third victory of the season. 

YOU MISS 100% OF THE SHOTS YOU CAN'T TAKE
RIT limited Sacred Heart to 15 shots on goal in Tuesday's 5-1 victory - the fewest since limiting Canisius to a D1 era-low 12 in a 2-0 victory on Jan. 20, 2018. Holding the Pioneers without a shot on goal over the final 25:53 of regulation, Tuesday was also the 15th time the Tigers held an opponent under 20 shots on goal during the last five seasons. 

BLOCK PARTY
RIT blocked a season-high 19 shots in Tuesday's 5-1 win over Sacred Heart, eclipsing the 18 it knocked down in the 3-3 tie with visiting Mercyhurst on Oct. 29. Senior defenseman Dan Willett totaled a team-high seven blocks, matching his season-high from the Tigers' 2-1 win over St. Lawrence (Oct. 16). He entered the weekend ranked third nationally and first in in Atlantic Hockey with 66 blocks. 

GAME ON...AND ON AND ON
Senior defenseman Dan Willett played his 154th career game in Tuesday's Sacred Heart win, while senior forward Jake Hamacher made his 153rd appearance in a Tiger sweater. Willett is poised to move atop RIT's Division I-era games played list, entering this weekend tied with Josh Mitchell '16 for first, while Hamacher is a right behind in a tie for third with Alexander Kuqali '16. The duo is also on pace to crack the Atlantic Hockey top-10 list with the conference record (158) in their sites, held by Mercyhurst's Tyler Shiplo '15 and Canisius' Ben Danford '14. 

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 1-10-0 when trailing after 40 minutes of play. 

MAGIC NUMBER
RIT's is 11-1-3 when holding opponents to three goals or less and 9-1-1 when holding opponents under three goals - the only loss coming to visiting Arizona State, 2-1, on Jan. 14.

GREEN EGGS AND HAMACHER
Senior forward Jake Hamacher is poised to become only the 13th 100-point scorer during RIT's Division I era. His two goals in Tuesday's win over Sacred Heart pushed his Atlantic Hockey-leading career point total to 99, while he also ranks second in the league with 57 career assists (behind teammate Dan Willett 's 70) and second with 42 career goals (behind Will Calverley's 44). 

WILL POWER
Senior forward Will Calverley's three-assist outing at Niagara was his sixth-career three-point game. It was also his second career game with three assists and first since a 5-4 win at Niagara on Dec. 22, 2020. Nominated for the 2022 Hobey Baker Award, annually presented to the nation's top NCAA men's hockey player, Calverley currently leads Atlantic Hockey with 12 goals and is tied for fifth with 21 points. The Scarborough, Ontario native also leads all Atlantic Hockey players with 44 career goals and is second with 85 career points in 113 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 tallied a goal and an assist in Tuesday's win over Sacred Heart for his fifth multi-point game of the season and has six points (2G, 4A) in the Tigers' last four games. Tied for second in Atlantic Hockey with 22 points as well as 10 goals, including a point in four-consecutive games entering this weekend, he was named Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Month for both November and December as well as Rookie of the Week five times this season. His three game-winning goals are tied for the 18th-highest total in the nation, while he is also tied for fourth among the nation's freshmen in goals and 11th in points. 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 Notre Dame (Oct. 21). 

WAYNE'S WORLD
Head Coach Wayne Wilson became the 49th NCAA men's hockey coach to hit the 400-win plateau with the 1-0 OT win at Princeton (Nov. 27). Wilson ranks 16th among active coaches with a 404-284-76 record the last 23 seasons - all on the Tiger bench. The only coach in NCAA history to win the Spencer Penrose (D1 National COY, 2001) and the Edward Jeremiah (D3 National COY, 2010) awards, he totaled a 116-31-12 mark in six Division III campaigns (1999-2005) and owns a 284-246-63 record through 17 Division-I seasons. 

DAN THE MAN (ON DEFENSE)
Senior Dan Willett ranks third in the nation with 66 blocked shots, including seven in Tuesday's Sacred Heart win to match the season-high seven he posted in the Tigers' 2-1 victory over St. Lawrence (Oct. 16). Willett garnered first-team all-conference honors last season after leading RIT and tying for 12th in Atlantic Hockey with 30 blocked shots. He was named the Atlantic Hockey Defensive Player of the Month for October this season and was named the Defensive Player of the Week on Nov. 29th.

DAN THE MAN (ON OFFENSE)
Willett notched his Atlantic Hockey-leading 70th career assist for his 80th career point in last Sunday's 3-3 Bentley tie. Notching his 11th career goal in Tuesday's Sacred Heart win, the 2021-22 Preseason All-Atlantic Hockey honoree is fifth among all conference scorers with 81 career points. 

GAME CHANGING VOTE
A proposal was passed last month at the NCAA Convention during the Division III Business meeting which will allow RIT to offer scholarships to its Division I men's and women's hockey student-athletes. Multi-divisional intercollegiate athletic programs like RIT, which sponsors 22 Division III teams along with two Division I hockey teams, were previously not allowed to apply all Division I legislation to its Division I teams, including the inability to award athletic grant-in-aid to its players based on a 2004 bylaw. However, with the vote overwhelmingly passing by a 388-18-39 margin, the Tigers will be on the same footing as the rest of its peers across the country with a full 18 scholarships available to each hockey team. 

FOUR THE MOST PART
RIT is 2-9-0 when allowing four or more goals. The Tigers' 6-5 OT win at Niagara (Jan. 22) marked the Tigers' first victory of the season when allowing five or more goals. 

DANDY ANDY
Junior forward Andrew Rinaldi has scored three goals in RIT's last two games, including two in Tuesday's 5-1 win over Sacred Heart. He scored RIT's first goal of the 2021-22 campaign in the opener versus Colgate and added two more, including the short-handed game-winner, the following game in a 4-2 win at Army. Prior to finishing scoreless in 11 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, Rinaldi finished third on the team with 10 goals during his freshman campaign. 

ABOUT THE YELLOWJACKETS
AIC split a series with Holy Cross in Springfield last week, winning 3-1 on Thursday before falling 5-4 on Sunday. Graduate student forward Brian Rigali scored his team-leading 10th goal, while junior defenseman Zak Galambos added a goal and an assist to clinch the Yellowjackets' 11th-consecutive victory and tie the second-longest winning streak in Atlantic Hockey history. Graduate student forward Chris Dodero opened the scoring in the sixth minute of Sunday's snow-postponed rematch, but  a 4-0 Crusader run to finish the first, followed by another goal with 4:38 left in the second yielded a 5-1 deficit which proved insurmountable. The Yellowjackets scored three goals with their goalie pulled over the final eight minutes  of regulation, but came up short for their first loss since Nov. 26. Senior forward Chris Theodore leads the squad with 20 points and 14 goals, followed by Rigali (10G, 9A) and junior forward Jake Stella (9G, 10A).