ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT men's hockey team hosts Sacred Heart this Friday (7:05 p.m.) and Saturday (5:05 p.m.) to kick off the 2023-24 Atlantic Hockey season. The defending Bob DeGregorio Trophy winners welcome the Pioneers to town for their first game at the Gene Polisseni Center of the season following a 3-0 shutout of Notre Dame last Saturday at Blue Cross Arena in front of a sell-out crowd of 10,556 during Brick City Homecoming Weekend. 

FOLLOW LIVE
Watch: FloHockey.tv/events
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Pregame (35 minutes before face-off): Friday | Saturday
Local Audio: WITR 89.7 FM or FOX Sports 1280 AM
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Twitter: @RITMHKY

TIGER TRACKS
Junior goaltender Tommy Scarfone was named the Atlantic Hockey Co-Goaltender of the Week after totaling 36 saves in the Irish victory, including 17 in the second period. He backstopped a defense that killed all six Notre Dame power play attempts, including a full 5-on-3 opportunity six minutes into the game as well as a five-minute major at the end of the second period, on his way to his 23rd career game with at least 30 saves. 

RIT jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead on senior defenseman Gianfranco Cassaro's power play goal 2:57 into the contest and junior forward Carter Wilkie's tally with 7:34 on the clock. Junior forward Cody Laskosky later tallied an unassisted goal off an Irish turnover with 4:19 left in the second period.  

QUICK HITS
Scarfone moved into a tie for third place during RIT's Division I era with his sixth career shutout, along with Mike Rotolo '17. He also made the second most saves to preserve a shutout during his RIT career and the most in a regulation shutout. He stopped 39 shots in 70:17 minutes in goal during the Tigers' 1-0 home shutout of Sacred Heart in the opening game of the 2022 Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals.   

Cassaro notched his eighth power play goal in a Tiger uniform as well as his third game-winning tally. 

Wilkie has scored a goal in both of RIT's games this season and leads the squad with three points.

RIT has killed 11 of 12 power plays in two games, picking up where it left off after finishing second nationally with a .873 penalty killing percentage (158-181) a season ago. 

RIT improved to 2-6-1 in nine Division I-era meetings opposite Big Ten opponents – the other a 3-2 OT win at Notre Dame during the 2021 season. 

RIT scored the opening goal versus Notre Dame after finishing the 2022-23 season 16-4-1 when notching the first tally. The Tigers were also 16-3-0 when holding opponents to less than three goals, 13-2-0 when leading after the first period and 15-1-0 when leading after the second period. 

RIT owns a 33-16-2 record in 52 Division I-era meetings with Sacred Heart, winning three straight and six of the last seven meetings. The Tigers swept a home doubleheader versus the Pioneers last season with back-to-back 3-1 decisions. Scarfone only allowed two goals on 58 shots during the set, including 37 stops in the opener. Wilkie finished the series with two goals and two assists while Cassaro logged two goals in game-two.  

Current Tiger transfer goaltender Luke Lush started both games of the doubleheader for Sacred Heart, totaling 19 saves in the opener and 25 the following night.

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 returned 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.