By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Rochester Institute of Technology may have lost in overtime on Friday night to league-leading Canisius, but the Tigers quite possibly found a goalie.
They sure hope so, anyway.
Freshman Ian Andriano made his first collegiate start, and while he allowed five goals, he made a high number of high-quality saves.
That’s something the Tigers hadn’t been getting since the Christmas break ended from the assumed No. 1 goalie, freshman Logan Drackett, or junior Christian Short. In Tuesday’s make-up game at Mercyhurst, Drackett allowed four first-period goals on 10 shots before he was replaced by Andriano (two goals on 17 shots).
Well aware that his team’s trust in the goaltending was a bit tenuous, RIT coach Wayne Wilson made the decision on Thursday to give Andriano the start.
You can’t play scared. You be thinking, “What if there’s a turnover?” when you’re trying to make a breakout pass. The Tigers were doing those things, Wilson said, because they didn’t know if they’d get a save behind them.
“We’re getting a little sloppy, we’re second-guessing ourselves, we’re slow in making decisions because we don’t want to screw up,” Wilson said. “Our team save percentage is 87 percent (actually .869, worst in the country). It’s just not good enough.”
Andriano allowed the winning goal to Ryan Schmelzer just 22 seconds into overtime, but only because Dylan McLaughlin was dancing through the RIT defense yet again to set up his linemate. It’s what McLaughlin did all night, finishing with two goals and two assists as Canisius improved to 12-5 in Atlantic Hockey and 12-9-2 overall.
“We didn’t have an answer for 13 McLaughlin,” Wilson said. “He was dominant on every single shift he was out there.”
And that’s despite having the opportunity to play whatever line and defense pairing against him.
“We matched up,” Wilson said, “and we didn’t have a match up for him. We started to play passive and five-on-five you can’t. You have to take away his time and space.”
They’ll get a chance to try again in Saturday’s 7:05 p.m. rematch at the Gene Polisseni Center. Andriano will surely start again.
Andriano said his primary concern was helping the Tigers (7-8-1, 8-12-2) win. He made four really good stops in the second period to prevent Canisius from building a 2-1 lead. And then after the Tigers had tied the score 4-4 at 17:41 on Adam Brubacher’s goal, Andriano needed to stop McLaughlin on a breakaway nine seconds after the ensuing faceoff.
“I would say anyone at this level, when you have a chance to make a difference, you want to,” Andriano said.
The Tigers needed to erase a 3-1 Canisius lead midway through the third period and did so as Erik Brown and Shawn Cameron scored 17 seconds apart in the ninth minute.
McLaughlin set up Jeff Murray’s go-ahead goal at 13:41 but the Tigers again tied it when Brubacher’s point shot eluded traffic and found the net.
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