SOUTH BEND, Ind. — With 5:51 left in the third period Saturday, Rochester Institute of Technology’s Josh Mitchell fired from the far side of the right circle and beat Minnesota State goaltender Stephon Williams to break a 1-1 tie and give the Tigers the goal that saw the No. 16 overall seed defeat the No. 1 overall seed 2-1.
But that’s not the entire story.
[scg_html_mw2015]As Mitchell was shooting, Tigers’ forward Matt Garbowsky and Mavericks defenseman Zach Palmquist became entangled in the Minnesota State crease, resulting in a collision with Williams that took him out of the play. The immediate call on the ice was no goal, but upon review, Mitchell’s 16th marker of the season counted and the Tigers outlasted the Mavericks to win the game.
Whether or not the officials made the right call became a matter of perspective post-game. Naturally.
“I saw their forward come in and then his head swivels and sees that our defenseman’s in front of him,” said Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings. “There’s contact, goes into the goalie, goalie falls over, goes in the net. That’s what I saw.
“I take nothing away from RIT. They earned it. They found a way to win a hockey game. They deserve to move on. That’s just a tough pill to swallow.”
“I thought the RIT player did push me into our goaltender,” said Palmquist. “I guess the refs didn’t see it that way, but that was my thoughts.”
“I was just going to the net hard,” said Garbowsky. “I didn’t even see the play. The next thing I knew, the puck’s in the net and there’s a bit of controversy there, I guess.”
The NCAA issued an explanation following the game stating that “the referees determined that the Minnesota State player initiated the contact with the RIT player.” And thus the play stood.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000kF7hYJWdh.E” g_name=”20150328-RIT-MINN-kelley” 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.f22AHktcpsgA2GwXPPEVwGCFFYcTw3ebZaEjstAmNKjCY1cHReA–” ]That wasn’t the only drama in the game. For the preceding 54 minutes, the Tigers and Mavericks played an amazing, end-to-end, physical hockey game, with Minnesota State outshooting RIT 34-19 and Tigers goaltender Jordan Ruby making saves on Palmquist, Matt Leitner and C.J. Franklin and smothering rebounds, and the RIT defense limiting junior Bryce Gervais — who had 27 goals this season — to just three shots on net.
The Tigers came out strong and early in the first cycled well in the Mavericks’ end, resulting in Alexander Kuqali’s goal at 4:10.
Franklin got the equalizer on the Minnesota State power play at 10:52, a tip-in of Teddy Blueger’s shot from the right point.
In all, the Mavericks had five power-play chances to the Tigers’ two. Said Palmquist, “I think we could have — or should have — capitalized on the chances that we had.”
RIT coach Wayne Wilson said that the Tigers played the kind of game they wanted to.
“We’re very up-tempo; we’re not a trapping-type team,” said Wilson. “When I watched Minnesota, I thought we were very similar in styles. They get up and down the ice. I thought they were very tenacious from the drop of the puck.”
Minnesota State finished the 2014-15 season at 29-14-5. RIT (20-14-5), which became the first team to beat the No. 1 overall seed in the first round since the tournament expanded to 16 teams in 2003, advanced to Sunday night’s deciding game of the Midwest Regional against either Omaha or Harvard.
