By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Caleb Moretz said he doesn’t really remember the first few strides of his trek across the ice of the Gene Polisseni Center on Saturday night, the Atlantic Hockey playoff championship trophy hoisted high above his head.
“I blacked out for a little bit,” he said. “It was just a whole rush of emotions.”
Indeed, what had been a five-year quest to conquer Atlantic Hockey and earn the automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament was finally reality for Moretz, the captain of Rochester Institute of Technology’s men’s hockey team. With a 5-2 victory over American International College, the Tigers (27-10-2) advanced to an NCAA regional for the fourth time in program history.
RIT, the 15th seed, will play No. 2 seed Boston University (26-9-2) at 5 p.m. Thursday in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Terriers, ranked second in the nation, feature center Macklin Celebrini, the top-rated prospect for the 2024 NHL Draft.
The Tigers last played in a regional in 2016, when, as the No. 16 seed, they lost to No. 1 Quinnipiac 4-0. In 2015, they became the first No. 16 seed to defeat the tournament No. 1 when they ousted Minnesota-Mankato 2-1 before falling 4-0 to Nebraska-Omaha in the regional final. In 2010, as the 15th seed, they posted regional victories over Denver (2-1) and New Hampshire (6-2) to reach the Frozen Four, where they lost 8-1 to Wisconsin.
The Tigers actually were on their way to accomplishing their goal of an NCAA bid last spring until Holy Cross barged into The Gene and bounced them out of the Atlantic Hockey tournament in the semifinals.
So this season, with what would be their final opportunity to win the league’s playoff crown, Moretz and fellow graduate students Elijah Gonsalves, Gianfranco Cassaro and Ryan Nicholson were able to celebrate.
“We’ve been having these goals hanging on our wall all season and it was just a huge realization that we did it,” Moretz said. “That’s why the fifth years all came back, it felt like we had unfinished business.
“It’s unfortunate that the guys who couldn’t come back didn’t get to experience this, but it was awesome to be able to represent them and put to use what we learned from them.”
As the 15th seed, the Tigers knew on Saturday night that they’d be playing BU. They learned where they’d play that game during Sunday evening’s selection show on ESPNU.
“The only thing you hoped is that we could stay in the east so our fans could get there,” Tigers coach Wayne Wilson said.
Celebrini, a 17-year-old native of Vancouver, is tied for the NCAA lead in scoring with 59 points and his 31 goals are second only to Boston College sophomore Cutter Gauthier. Luke Tuch, younger brother of Buffalo Sabres winger Alex Tuch, is BU’s sixth-leading scorer (9-19-28). The Tigers and Terriers have never played.
While RIT playing one of college hockey’s bluebloods has a David vs. Goliath feel, the Tigers say they’re far from done.
“We’ve still got a couple more goals to check off the list,” Moretz said.
Of course, they’re well aware of the task that awaits them. As they were when they posted upsets of Denver and New Hampshire to win the East Regional in 2010 and of Minnesota-Mankato in the Mideast Regional semifinals in 2015.
In terms of common opponent, BU needed overtime to defeat Bentley of Atlantic Hockey 3-2 in the season opener. RIT swept Bentley 3-0 and 2-1 in OT in late January. The Terriers won a pair of one-goal games against Maine in November (3-2 and 5-4) before defeating the Black Bears 4-1 in the Hockey East tournament. RIT lost 5-2 to Maine in the Dartmouth Ledyard Holiday Classic in late December. BU split with Notre Dame in October, losing 4-1 before rebounding to win 8-2 the next night. The week before, RIT shutout the Irish 3-0 in the Brick City Homecoming game.
“It’s not the boogeyman,” Wilson said of facing BU. “Maine played BU toe-to-toe. Regardless of who you play, you want to get the first goal. You can’t dig yourself a hole before you find your game, because 60 minutes goes fast.”
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