By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
They had traveled 6,600 miles by air and another 500 by bus last week to get to and from Henrietta to Belfast, Ireland, in order to play in the annual Friendship Four college hockey tournament.
Only to not score a goal.
Two full games for the Rochester Institute of Technology men’s hockey team, first against Miami-Ohio (a 4-0 loss) and then Sacred Heart (3-0), without scoring. Talk about your bad Thanksgiving holiday.
“You hate losing but you really hate losing that way,” freshman center Caleb Elfering said.
So what a relief it was on Friday night when Austin Brimmer, Elfering and then Simon Isabelle all scored in a 3-1 victory over the Canisius Golden Griffins at the Gene Polisseni Center.
Brimmer gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead at 13:27 of the second period, ending the scoreless drought at 154 minutes and 5 seconds.
Elfering then converted a Christian Catalano pass across the slot 11:46 into the third period before Isabelle clinched the victory, playing Ernie Clement by line-driving an airborne puck 110 feet into an empty net with 55.6 seconds left.
“Everybody had a moment tonight you could be proud of,” RIT coach Matt Thomas said after his team snapped a four-game losing streak and improved to 10-6 (7-4 in Atlantic Hockey).
Some of the biggest moments were turned in by – who else – sophomore goalie Jakub Krbecek. He stopped 21 shots, and while the number of pucks faced wasn’t high by any means, there were several high-quality shots.
“Kuba’s been the backbone to this team,” Brimmer said. “I think he showed that again tonight. We gave up some Grade-A chances and he was there.”
The biggest moment, however, may have been produced by Brimmer, the senior portal transfer who played the past three seasons at Long Island University.
And it was pretty much all him until he was shooting, when the net-front presence of linemates Philippe Jacques and Adam Jeffery made finding the puck difficult for Canisius goalie Chase Clark.
Brimmer attacked on the left wing, driving deep against winger Stefano Bottini before hitting the brakes and curling back up through the circle. Rather than pass back to the point, he saw open ice, drove to the slot and then fired far side past Clark.
The longest scoreless famine in RIT’s Division I era finally came to an end.
“It was a great feeling, not just for myself, but for the group,” Brimmer said.
Officially, Jeffery and Tristan Allen had the assists but Brimmer gave a nod to the pre-scout video work from the coaches.
“The coaches and staff are showing video of other teams’ systems,” Brimmer explained, “and they said if you drive deep the middle lane might be open.”
Indeed it was, he powered to the opening and an instant later was celebrating the goal. At 6-foot-4 and 223 pounds, Brimmer provides physicality on the wall and in open ice, but he also showed plenty of puck skills.
“What he does is he inspires us just the way he battles,” Thomas said. “When the guys seem him bringing it like he brought it tonight, you can help but be inspired.”
Elfering’s goal provided a 2-0 lead at in the 12th minute of the third period. Catalano dangled from behind the end line and into the slot, dancing between two defenders before passing across the slot and Elfering had an open net.
Canisius retaliated just 49 seconds later when Oliver Tarr redirected a Joe Messina point shot past Krbecek, slicing the lead to 2-1.
The Griffins pulled Clark for a sixth attacker with nearly four minutes remaining, and it became a six-on-four advantage when Evan Konyen was penalized for tripping with 1:45 remaining.
The Tigers survived, however, getting a block by Jeffery of a Tarr shot before Isabelle’s clinching goal. Defenseman Brock Reinhart chipped the puck off the boards and just out of the zone, and Isabelle, standing at the RIT blue line, took a baseball-like swing and connected at the waist-high puck, driving it the length of the ice for the bullseye empty-netter.
The teams play again Saturday at 7 p.m. at the LECOM HarborCenter, then RIT is idle until hosting Penn State on Jan. 3 (reportedly already sold out).
7-4 is really ģood, considering I think the Tigers were projected for 9th place of 10 teams in the Atlantic Conference. 🤔 👍 🏒🥅