The Cortland Red Dragons and RIT Tigers played a fast-paced, up and down the
ice hockey game Tuesday night. The Tigers scored four first-period goals and rode the advantage on to a 6-3 final.
The only blemish on what was otherwise an entertaining, intense hockey game
was an intrusive performance by the referee crew. The RIT coaching staff was critical of the officiating crew, concerned about several missed calls in the third period when the game could’ve gotten out of hand. Eight of the game’s first nine penalties were also called against RIT.
“The star player tonight was the men with the stripes,” said RIT coach Wayne
Wilson. “They were just awful and had to be the show.”
RIT took a 4-1 lead in the first period. After an early Tiger goal 4:04 into the game by Mike Bournazakis, Cortland answered back at 7:42 to tie the
game. Jeff Olsen sent a blast from the top of the slot through a screen that beat RIT netminder Tyler Euverman for the goal.
RIT then rattled off three unanswered goals to build a lead that they would
never relinquish. Roberto Orafiama, Mike Tarantino, and Mike Bournazakis all chipped in tallies by the end of the first period.
“I think things came too easily early on,” said Wilson. “Then we struggled
in the second period.”
Cortland came on strong in the second period playing an end-to-end, run-and-
gun style of very entertaining hockey. The work paid off just 4:43 in to the period when Ryan Schmidt tapped in a puck that squirted out from behind the
RIT net.
“Cortland is a much improved team and showed that tonight,” said Wilson.
The teams traded power-play goals for the remainder of the second period, one
each, and the period ended with RIT up 5-3.
Tiger defenseman Ryan Fairbarn chipped the puck past Cortland netminder John
Larnerd 4:26 into the third period to seal the RIT win.
