ROCHESTER, N.Y. — RIT senior Brad McGowan scored a natural hat trick against Robert Morris University on Saturday night to lead his team to a 4-3 comeback victory.
McGowan, along with senior Matt Garbowsky and junior Josh Mitchell, make up RIT’s top line, a line that Tigers’ coach Wayne Wilson thinks is as good as any in the league.
“They’ve been very consistent from the start,” he said. “They’re a very strong line, they’re very determined, and they’ve got great chemistry. It starts with Garbowsky, with draws and things like that, but both Josh Mitchell and Brad McGowan have been outstanding as well in their own right.”
Colonials coach Derek Schooley echoed Wilson’s opinion of the trio.
“They were very good. They obviously got all four goals and controlled the play, and we didn’t have an answer for it.”
Schooley also pointed to Garbowsky and the Tigers’ ability to win faceoffs as a big difference.
“They were winning power-play draws, penalty-kill draws, all those scenarios.”
RIT won 46 of 79 draws in the contest.
For the Tigers, it was a big win coming off the previous night’s loss to the Colonials, who had scored with just 10 seconds remaining.
“I thought it was really kind of a devastating loss,” said Wilson of the previous game. “I liked the character of our guys in the locker room, and they responded very well.”
The Colonials opened the scoring a few minutes into the second period when freshman Timmy Moore scored on a nice centering feed from junior David Friedmann.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000kBor7kMc6ws” g_name=”20150221-RobertMorris-RIT-Phillips” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f22Nc8X75ooeRSQaylAmdBzxfJFt2dRK7tC9fmm4jUWMWAKbvSA–” ]The Tigers tied the game a few minutes later when Josh Mitchell cut into the slot and fired a hard wrist shot past RMU junior goaltender Terry Shafer. It was the only goal for Mitchell, who was buzzing all game and had hit a goalpost moments before he finally found the back of the net.
The Colonials responded very quickly when junior Greg Gibson took a page from Mitchell’s book, cutting into the slot and firing a shot past Tigers sophomore goalie Mike Rotolo. It was Gibson’s third goal of the weekend.
RMU followed up with another goal a few minutes later when freshman Brady Ferguson picked up the puck off the faceoff and found Friedmann in front of the net.
Just half a minute after Friedmann’s goal, McGowan deflected freshman defenseman Brady Norrish’s shot from the point to cut the Tigers’ deficit to one, and he didn’t look back. McGowan added a power-play goal later in the second with assists from Garbowsky and freshman defenseman Chase Norrish, and carried his hot stick into the final frame, scoring his third of the game following a skillful keep at the blue line by Chase Norrish.
The Colonials had the opportunity to tie the game late in the period when consecutive Tigers penalties gave RMU almost a full minute of five-on-three power-play time, but the Colonials were unable to score with the man advantage.
Robert Morris will finish out the season with a home-and-home against Niagara next weekend. The Tigers hope to play themselves into a first-round bye in the Atlantic Hockey Championships, as they will host back-to-back games with Mercyhurst next week.
