Courtesy of RITAthletics.com
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – Erik Baskin scored a power-play goal with 8:37 left in regulation to break a 3-3 tie and lift host Air Force (6-5-2, 2-4-1 Atlantic Hockey) to a 4-3 win over the RIT men’s hockey team (5-4-1, 5-2-0 Atlantic Hockey) at Cadet Ice Arena Friday night.
Down 3-2 heading into the third period, RIT battled back and eventually tie the game with 10:59 left as Myles Powell (Courtenay, British Columbia/Cowichan Valley Capitals) spotted Erik Brown (Keene, Ontario/Kemptville 73’s) all alone on the backdoor. Brown spun around and roofed a shot over Billy Christopolous for his team-best seventh goal of the season.
Moments later, Air Force would get a power-play and take advantage, as Baskin redirected a point shot by Alex Menhert past RIT goaltender Logan Drackett (Calgary, Alberta/Calgary Canucks) for his fourth goal of the season, proving to be the game-winner.
The Tigers would mount a challenge over the last five minutes of regulation and with Drackett to the bench for the extra attacker, keep Air Force hemmed in its own zone for the final minute, but could not get the tying goal.
Gabe Valenzuela (Brampton, Ontario/North York Rangers) tied a career-high with three points on a goal and two assists to lead the way offensively for RIT. He now has at least two points in each of his last five games with 11 points over that stretch. Brown scored a goal and added an assist, while Liam Kerins (Caledon, Ontario/North York Rangers) also scored for RIT. Powell and Abbott Girduckis (Belleville, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) both extended their point-scoring streaks to eight games, each recording an assist. Drackett took the loss in net, stopping 24 shots.
Jordan Himley, Joe Tyran, Evan Giesler and Baskin scored for the Falcons, while Menhert had two assists. Christopoulos made 24 saves to pick up his sixth win of the season.
Air Force out-shot RIT, 28-27 overall and was 2-for-4 on the power-play, while the Tigers were 1-for-2. RIT has been awarded just 17 power-plays in seven league games this season, but have scored on six of those chances (35.3 percent).
“Air Force out-worked us, especially over the final two periods,” said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. “They won a lot of the one-on-one battles, competed much harder than us and that was the difference, as the better team won tonight.”
RIT weathered the early Air Force pressure, but eventually dominated for long stretches of the first period, holding a 13-6 edge in shots, as the game was deadlocked at 1-1 after 20 minutes.
Drackett made a big save on Matt Serratore just 29 seconds in. Shawn Cameron (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Cumberland Grads) had a great chance for the Tigers just beyond the halfway mark of the period. He came out of the corner, beat his man to the net, got hauled down and still lifted a shot in close that Christopoulos stopped to keep the game scoreless.
The Tigers would get on the board first with 8:29 left in the period, as Kerins swatted in a rebound off a shot from Mark Logan (Calgary, Alberta/Brooks Bandits) for his first goal of the season. Valenzuela scooped up a loose puck in the neutral zone and sent Logan in, who had a hard shot fought off by Christopoulos. Kerins followed up and put the rebound in.
RIT would have a couple of great chances to go up 2-0, but Christopolous made a big save first on Brown and then on Jordan Peacock(Burlington, Ontario/Burlington Cougars) cutting to the net.
Air Force would tie the game on a power-play with 5:34 left in the period, right off the face-off, as Phil Boje faked a shot and found Himley all alone on the right side. Himley roofed a shot over a diving Drackett for his third goal of the season.
Valenzuela would stay hot, scoring his fifth goal of the season just 40 seconds into the second period to give RIT a 2-1 lead. Girduckis caused a turnover and got the puck to Brown who fired a shot from the high slot that Valenzuela redirected past Christopoulos.
Just 2:31 later, Air Force would tie the game, as Tyran took a feed from Matt Koch and fired a shot off the rush past Drackett for his first collegiate goal.
The Falcons thought they had taken the lead with just under nine minutes left in the period, as Erich Jaeger slipped in a rebound off a scramble in front in which Drackett was knocked into his own net. RIT quickly contested that there was goaltender interference and after a video review, the goal was waved off.
Air Force would grab the lead moments later, as Serratore threaded a perfect pass to Giesler on a 2-on-1, who one-timed the shot past Drackett to make it a 3-2 game.
Air Force leads the all-time series between the two schools, 28-20-4. Twenty-nine of 47 meetings between the two schools since RIT moved to Division I in 2005 have ended in ties or one-goal. RIT and Air Force also meet for a pair of meetings at the Gene Polisseni Center on Jan. 12-13, 2018.
RIT and Air Force wrap up the weekend series Saturday night from Cadet Ice Arena. Opening face-off is once again at 9:05 p.m. EST
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