ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The No. 19/20 RIT men's hockey team heads to Arizona State for its final two non-conference games of the season this Friday (9:05 p.m. EST) and Saturday (6:05 p.m. EST).

The Tigers took four out of six points from visiting Mercyhurst last weekend in Atlantic Hockey play, winning a 1-0 game on Saturday after tying, 4-4, on Friday, while the Sun Devils fell twice at home to No. 17 Minnesota State, 3-1, and 5-0.
 
Atlantic Hockey-leading RIT will follow up its trip west with five conference series to close the regular season, heading to Holy Cross for two games next weekend before playing five of its final eight games in the friendly confines of the Gene Polisseni Center.
 
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TIGER TRACKS

• RIT earned a 1-0 victory over visiting Mercyhurst on Saturday for its second shutout in four games. Sophomore forward Grady Hobbs' first-period goal off a tough-angle feed by senior forward Caleb Moretz with 4:07 on the clock proved to be the difference.
• Friday saw the Tigers jump out an early 2-0 lead on tallies by graduate student forward Andrew Petrucci and Moretz, before the Lakers responded with two goals in a five-minute stretch to tie the score into the second period. Senior defenseman Gianfranco Cassaro scored with 12:58 remaining in the second, but Mercyhurst later converted a 5-on-3 opportunity to retie the game with 6:26 left. First-year forward Tyler Mahan scored his third short-handed goal of the season less than a minute later, but the visitors once again found the equalizer with a shorthanded goal of their own with 16:30 left in regulation. The teams were scoreless the rest of the way, including overtime, before Mercyhurst won the shootout, 2-1.
• Sophomore goaltender Tommy Scarfone followed up a 20-save effort on Friday by stopping all 18 shots he faced on Saturday for his second shutout of the season and fifth in a Tiger sweater. 

POLL WATCHING
RIT moved back into both national polls this week, voted No. 19 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine rankings and No. 20 in the USCHO.com poll. The Tigers received their first USCHO ranking earlier this season since finishing No. 20 in the final 2016 poll after winning their second-straight Atlantic Hockey Championship. RIT also had not appeared in the USA Today poll since finishing No. 10 in the final 2010 rankings following its first Atlantic Hockey Championship and a run to the Frozen Four.
 
IN THE RANKINGS
The Tigers currently rank 15th nationally with 3.36 goals per game and 13th in scoring margin by outscoring their opposition by 0.82 goals per game. RIT also owns the nation's eighth-ranked penalty kill (.858) and 16th-ranked power play (.244).
 
SILKY WILKIE

• Sophomore forward Carter Wilkie currently leads Atlantic Hockey with 1.05 points per game. Tied for 33rd in the country with 23 points, his nine goals are tied for third in the conference, while his 13 assists are tied for fifth. His five power play goals are tied for the nation's 17th-highest total.
• The Atlantic Hockey November Player of the Month as well as a two-time Player of the Week, Wilkie scored a career-high four points on two goals and two assists in the Tigers' 10-4 win at Canisius (Dec. 3). He also led all of Atlantic Hockey with eight points in November, including two goals and an assist in the 5-3 win over Princeton (Nov. 25) and a goal and two assists in the 3-1 win over Sacred Heart (Nov. 12).
• Wilkie entered the week tied for 10th nationally with 265 faceoff wins while winning 54.5 percent of his draws. 

SAINT TOMMY

• Sophomore goaltender Tommy Scarfone is currently 17th nationally and first in Atlantic Hockey with a .922 save percentage and is fourth in the country and tops in the conference with a .763 winning percentage.
• Scarfone is 12-1-1 with a 1.83 goals against average and a .935 save percentage in 14 conference games this year.
• He stopped a career-high 41 shots in RIT's 6-1 setback to No. 5 Penn State (Dec. 30) before tying his fourth-highest total with 37 the following night. Named the Atlantic Hockey Goaltender of the Week on three occasions this year, he has totaled at least 30 saves in eight games this season. 

ROOKIE COOKIES
First-year forward Tyler Mahan leads RIT and is tied for eighth in the country among first-year players with 10 goals. He also entered the week in a four-way tie for for first nationally with three short-handed tallies. Mahan had a team-best six-game point streak snapped last Saturday after totaling five goals and three assists during the run.
 
BEST DEFENSE IS GOOD OFFENSE
Senior Gianfranco Cassaro and junior Aidan Hansen-Bukata are among the nation's highest scoring defensive pairings this season. Both entered the week tied for fifth nationally among defenseman averaging 0.95 points per game.

• Cassaro ranks fourth in Atlantic Hockey with 21 points (9G/12A) and tied for seventh with goals 0.41 goals per game. The Atlantic Hockey October Player of the Month and three-time Player of the Week scored a career-high four points on a goal and three assists during the Tigers' 10-4 win at Canisius (Dec. 3). He also scored two goals on two occasions, including a three-point night in the 5-2 win over Holy Cross (Oct. 28).
• Hansen-Bukata is tied for 11th in the country with 0.85 assists per game and is tied for first in Atlantic Hockey with 17 assists. He registered three assists three times this season, including the 8-5 win over Union (Oct. 15), the 4-3 win at AIC (Nov. 5) and the 10-4 win at Canisius (Dec. 3). 

BLOCK PARTY
Graduate student defenseman Spencer Berry is tied for 11th nationally and tied for first in Atlantic Hockey with 44 blocked shots this season. He knocked down a career-high seven shots in the 5-3 win over Princeton (Nov. 25) and has logged at least one block in all but two games this season.
 
WAYNE'S WORLD
Head Coach Wayne Wilson is scheduled to coach his 800th career game this weekend. He moved into a tie for 41st in NCAA Men's Hockey history last Saturday with his 424th victory and currently ranks ninth among active Division I coaches with a 424-296-78 record the last 24 seasons - all on the Tiger bench. The only coach in NCAA history to win the Spencer Penrose (D1 National COY, 2010) and the Edward Jeremiah (D3 National COY, 2001) awards, he totaled a 116-31-12 mark in six Division III campaigns (1999-2005) and owns a 308-265-66 record during 18 Division-I seasons. Last season, he became the 49th NCAA men's hockey coach to hit the 400-win plateau with the 1-0 OT win at Princeton (Nov. 27).
 
REAL POWER PLAYERS
Six of graduate student forward Kobe Walker's seven goals this season are power-play tallies - tied for the sixth-highest total in the nation. Sophomore forward Carter Wilkie was also tied for 17th with five power play goals, while senior defenseman Gianfranco Cassaro was tied for 35th with four entering the weekend.
 
WE'RE GOING STREAKING!
RIT completed the fall semester with a 12-4-0 record, marking the first time the Tigers had won 12 of their first 16 games during the Division I era. RIT also strung together eight-consecutive wins from Oct. 21 (W, 4-2 at Air Force) to Nov. 25 (W, 5-3 vs. Princeton) – tying the second-longest winning streak during the Division I era. RIT won its first eight home games of the season for its longest Division I-era home winning streak, eclipsing the seven-game streak during the 2008-09 season.
 
ABOUT ARIZONA STATE
Arizona State is 3-7-0 in its last 10 games, including five setbacks to nationally ranked opponents. The Sun Devils most recently earned a 2-0 victory over Air Force in the Desert Hockey Classic Consolation game (Jan. 7) before falling twice to No. 17 Minnesota State, 3-1 and 5-0, last Friday and Saturday at home. ASU leads the nation with 373 total penalty minutes and is third with 14.92 PIM. Senior forward Robert Mastrosimone leads the squad with 25 points, 17 assists and eight goals and is one of nine Sun Devils with at least 10 points. Sophomore forward Josh Doan is second with 17 points (6G/11A), while junior forward Lukas Sillinger enters the weekend with 16 (6G/10A). Sophomore Northeastern transfer TJ Semptimphelter has started all 25 games in goal this season, pairing a .920 save percentage with a 2.77 goals against average. Sophomore defenseman Ethan Szmagaj is tied for ninth in the country with 47 blocked shots.