ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT men's hockey team hosts Notre Dame in the annual Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend game at Blue Cross Arena, Saturday at 7:05 p.m.. The Tigers opened the season with 4-3 setback at St. Lawrence last Saturday before earning a 6-4 exhibition victory over Guelph (Ont.) at the Polisseni Center on Monday. Notre Dame started their season with a split (L 3-1, W 3-0) versus visiting Clarkson last weekend.

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TIGER TRACKS
First-year forward Tyler Fukakusa was voted the Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Week after notching his first collegiate goal last Saturday, tying the score with 2:23 left in the second period on his second shot in a Tiger sweater.

St. Lawrence scored the lone goal of the first period 1:54 into the game and later tallied twice in the first nine minutes of the third period for a 3-1 lead. RIT senior Aiden Hansen-Bukata found the net at 9:03, but the Saints answered with a power play tally less than two minutes later to reclaim a 4-2 edge. Tiger junior forward Carter Wilkie made it a one-goal game with a tally at 13:12, but the Saints held RIT scoreless the rest of the way. Junior goaltender Tommy Scarfone totaled 30 saves for his 22nd career game with at least 30 stops.

QUICK HITS

• RIT owns a 3-3-0 record in six contests opposite Notre Dame – all on the road. The Tigers most recent trip to South Bend came in October of 2021 and started with a 3-2 OT win over the 13th-ranked Irish. Aiden Hansen-Bukata chased down a clear in the Irish zone and centered a pass to Carter Wilkie in the low slot for a short finish 30 seconds into overtime for the deciding tally.
• Tommy Scarfone's first career start was the following night – a 6-0 setback despite 39 saves. Since then, he has won 30 games, including 22 last year for the second-highest single-season total during the Division I era, and made 1,509 saves, including a Division I-era single-season record 934 last year on his way to first-team All-Atlantic Hockey honors.
• RIT is coming off the second-winningest season (25-13-1) in the program's now 19th season at the Division I level. The Tigers also put together their sixth 20-win season since making the jump in 2005-06 and the first since ending the 2014-15 campaign with a 20-15-5 mark en route to the first of two-straight Atlantic Hockey Championships.
• Seeded first for the 2023 Atlantic Hockey Tournament, the Tigers swept Mercyhurst in the best-of-three quarterfinal series, before falling to Holy Cross in three games in the semifinals to wrap up the second-winningest Division I-era campaign in program history.
• RIT finished the 2022-23 regular season with a 22-11-1 record, tying the most regular-season wins in 18 seasons at the Division I level. The 2009-10 team also finished the regular season with an identical 22-11-1 mark before rattling off four-straight victories to win the program's first Atlantic Hockey Tournament Championship, and then two NCAA Tournament victories for an appearance in the NCAA Division I Frozen Four.
• RIT returns 10 of its top 11 scorers from a season ago. Fifth-year forward Kobe Walker departed after finishing fifth with 23 points, including a team-high eight power-play goals. 
• Junior forward Carter Wilkie returns after becoming only the 13th player to hit the 40-point plateau in a single season in the Division I era and first since Erik Brown totaled 42 points (including a single-season program record 29 goals) in 2017-18.
• Wilkie is also tied for 27th in Division I-era program history with 70 career points in 77 games played. Fifth-year forward Elijah Gonsalves has also scored 77 points in 109 games the last four years.
• RIT received a league-high 105 points in this year's Atlantic Hockey preseason poll, including seven of 11 first-place votes. Sacred Heart was picked to finish second with 99 points, including two first-place votes, followed by AIC (90 votes, one first), Holy Cross (82, one first) and Canisius (79) in the top-five.

HIT THE BRICKS
RIT hosts Notre Dame in its 16th-annual Brick City game, played at the Blue Cross Arena since 2007 in conjunction with Homecoming & Family Weekend.  Unbeaten in their previous seven homecoming games, the Tigers will be in the hunt for their fifth-consecutive victory after defeating Union, 8-5, last season with their highest scoring output in the history of the series.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME
RIT has many fond memories of playing at the Blue Cross Arena since joining the Division I ranks. Home to the Atlantic Hockey Tournament Semifinal and Championship games from 2007-18, The Tigers punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament with championship victories in 2010, 2015 and 2016, while finishing runner-up in 2011 and 2012. RIT owns a combined 14-9-4 record at Blue Cross Arena in the Division I era, including an 8-4 mark in Atlantic Hockey Tournament play.