By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Abbott Girduckis knows very well that he’s not expected to be the finisher on his line with Gabe Valenzuela and Erik Brown.
Which is OK with Girduckis. The Rochester Institute of Technology junior right winger is more than willing to play off the creativity and shiftiness of Valenzuela and be one of the set-up men for Brown.
“I just try to complement them,” he said.
And why mess with success. Brown entered the weekend second in the nation in goals with 28. Over the past five games, the junior left winger had scored 11 goals; the rest of the Tigers had scored nine in that span.
Except when you’re the reigning Atlantic Hockey Player of the Month, you’re going to garner a bit more attention, especially since it’s playoff time.
Thus, the linemates played a little role reversal on Friday night, with Girduckis scoring the winning goal 23 seconds into overtime as the Tigers defeated Sacred Heart 5-4 in the opening game of the best-of-three series at the Gene Polisseni Center. Game 2 is at 7:05 p.m. Saturday and, if Sacred Heart wins, Game 3 will be at 7:05 p.m. Sunday.
“It’s playoffs, everyone’s got to be contributing,” Girduckis said. “It’s not going to come down to one guy.”
The goal was the seventh of the season for Girduckis, but just his second since Dec. 2. He is fourth on the team in scoring with 7-19-26.
“That line just has a lot of chemistry,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said.
The Tigers sprinted to a 3-0 lead in the first 13 minutes as Adam Brubacher sandwiched goals around one by Valenzuela.
But Sacred Heart methodically began to gain momentum and eventually tied the score on Mike Crocock’s goal with 4:07 remaining in the third period.
The Tigers needed just one shift of overtime to end the game. Brown and Valenzuela worked the puck down low and three Sacred Heart defenders ended up below the end line.
Which meant Girduckis was essentially standing alone by himself between the hash marks in a space the size of Rhode Island.
Brown made the centering pass and Girduckis snapped a shot over the left leg of goalie Brett Magnus.
“It’s funny, we talked about it before overtime, ‘Let’s end this on our first shift,’ ” Wilson said.
So they did.
“I was fortunate, Gabe and Brownie had a great forecheck and turned it over,” Girduckis said. “Brownie made a perfect pass I was lucky to get it over the pad.”
The Tigers (15-18-2) did lose sophomore right winger Shawn Cameron to injury in the first period. He is unlikely to play the rest of the weekend.
RIT winger Jordan Peacock was lucky to avoid serious injury when he was wiped out by a knee-to-knee hit from Hunter Fargey at 3:10 of the third period.
“I saw him skating toward him,” said Wilson, who had a perfect view of the hit from the Tigers bench, and in my mind (I’m thinking), ‘He’s not going to do this.’ ”
But Fargey did indeed stick out his leg and drop the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Peacock. Fargey was assessed a kneeing major and game misconduct. Atlantic Hockey officials may review the hit with regard to a possible suspension.
Tigers goalie Logan Drackett made 24 saves. Magnus stopped 28.
Leave a Reply