MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The RIT Tigers came hungry into Friday night’s critical Atlantic Hockey showdown with the Robert Morris University Colonials, and they left satisfied after having scored an important two points in the standings following their 4-3 victory.
The Tigers used a three-goal second period as a catalyst in downing the Colonials, who had won eight of their last 11 games. RIT would manage to hold off a determined Colonial comeback attempt in collecting the win.
“I thought we had a lot of people contribute tonight,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “We got some timely goals and obviously we didn’t make it easy for ourselves, I thought we backed off there and we needed to just keep pushing forward in the third period. The league has been a real grind and nothing’s been easy, we had to grind this one out and we found a way to win.”
Colonial forward Luke Lynch opened the scoring after taking a pass from Eric Israel down the right wing boards and straight to the net where he beat starting Tiger net minder Christian Short at 17:47 of the first period and appeared to give his team momentum heading into the dressing room. However, it would be short lived as Tiger forward Gabe Valenzuela beat Colonial defenders down low and goaltender Francis Marotte as well for his eighth goal of the season.
Abbott Girduckis would give the Tigers the lead at 12:45 of the second frame as he jammed a puck past Marotte and Bryson Traptow added another tally minutes later after corralling a puck near the blue line and firing long and hard through traffic to beat Marotte. The Tigers would add one more goal to their lead off the stick of Jordan Peacock just 2:46 into the third frame which would be all the offense they would need.
For the Tigers, the effort execution was more consistent and the win was a sweet reward coming off a home sweep at the hands of Bentley a weekend ago, and have had some results that didn’t go their way at different times during the season. The game was an example of a team doing all the things that they need to do to be successful night in and night out.
“We were pretty good in our own end and I thought we did a better job on the rush and we’ll take a look at the third period,” Wilson said. ” Our puck management was better, we protected the puck down low and weren’t just swinging it out in front hoping for things to happen. Our guys know what they have to do at this stage of the game, it’s just making sure you do the right things on a consistent basis game in and game out. It’s about consistent habits and we just haven’t been very consistent. We needed it tonight and as much as we were feeling sorry for ourselves, we’re in the middle of the pack. You’ve got to get points and fight for all your points and we did a better job of that tonight.”
The Colonials would not go away quietly though as forward Alex Dagnal beat Short on the short side to put his team back into the game, while Timmy Moore brought Robert Morris to within one goal with his tally at 14:39 of a third period that saw the Colonials put forth a much more determined effort. However, it was too little too late as the Tigers kept the tying goal from crossing the line the rest of the way. It was a disappointing effort for the Colonials who will look to rebound on Saturday night.
“We played 20 minutes tonight,” Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley said. “We were average to below average in the first period tonight and in the second period we just couldn’t defend. We were soft. Soft on pucks, soft on bodies, we couldn’t pick up our man. It was men against boys in the second period. In the third period, we turned the tables and started winning battles and races and when you win those you’re going to have the puck more than they will. We had chances in the third period but it was too little, too late and we ran out of time. They were pitching and we were catching tonight.”