[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000DpOf9XbZ_Vo” g_name=”20160319-AHC-RobertMorris-RIT” 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.f3NYALp8kNT7Zm3Ty_Xd5INHVtYd7_BpQOk7eg0QHK0mru0L6bQ–” ]<\/p>\n
ROCHESTER, N.Y.<\/b> — Rochester Institute of Technology scored three power-play goals en route to a 7-4 win over top-seeded Robert Morris on Saturday in the Atlantic Hockey championship game.<\/p>\n
The fifth-seeded Tigers repeated as AHC champions behind tournament MVP Myles Powell, who scored the overtime game-winner in Friday’s semifinal win over Air Force and followed it up with a four-point performance in the title game.<\/p>\n
[scg_html_aha2016]”This is a different kind of championship,” said RIT coach Wayne Wilson, whose team faced a multitude of injuries this season, affecting both starting goaltenders at one point. “We never complained, never got dejected. Besides [Dan] Schuler, this was actually the first time all season we had everyone healthy.”<\/p>\n
“We believed all year that we would get back here and defend our title,” said senior captain Josh Mitchell, who assisted on both game-winners this weekend.<\/p>\n
“They had an answer for everything,” said Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley, whose Colonials finished the season 24-11-4. “They have players that can score and we gave them too many chances.”<\/p>\n
It was the Colonials who opened the scoring, just 1:23 into the contest. Greg Gibson picked up a loose puck in the RIT zone and zipped a wrist shot past RIT goaltender Mike Rotolo.<\/p>\n
The Tigers got the next two goals, with Liam Kerins taking a feed from Todd Skirving in the slot and putting a wrist shot past Colonials goalie Terry Shafer to tie the game.<\/p>\n
Greg Amlong’s power-play goal, a one-timer from the left point, gave RIT its first lead of the game at 7:32.<\/p>\n
The teams traded goals in the remainder of the first period, with a power-play goal by David Friedmann for the Colonials at 10:10 and Kerins’ second of the period at 15:10.<\/p>\n
“I thought the first period we gave them too much room, too much respect,” said Wilson. “We made some adjustments.”<\/p>\n
The Tigers dominated the second period, outshooting RMU 17-8, getting a breakaway goal from Danny Smith and Powell’s first of two on the night to take a 5-3 lead. After sustained pressure in the Robert Morris zone, Mitchell found Powell at the right faceoff dot, and the sophomore took a stride towards the net and put the puck past Shafer.<\/p>\n
After Powell’s second consecutive goal made it 6-3 midway through the third period, Robert Morris found another gear and got to within two on a Matt Cope power-play goal at 13:02.<\/p>\n
“We took some penalties after that, but had a lot of chances on the penalty kill,” said Schooley. “We get one more and it’s a one-goal hockey game. But [RIT] had answers every time.”<\/p>\n
Chase Golightly had a short-handed breakaway attempt shortly after, but Rotolo was able to poke the puck off his stick, and RIT scored seconds later to put the game away.<\/p>\n
“I had to have it,” said Rotolo. “I have to backbone the team when we make a mistake. I knew if he scores it’s a 6-5 hockey game with five minutes left. But lucky enough, I get my stick on it and we ended up coming down and scoring. 7-4 is a heck of a lot different than 6-5.”<\/p>\n
Robert Morris outshot RIT 16-6 in the final period and 34-29 for the game.<\/p>\n
“We knew they were going to come hard,” said RIT’s Alexander Kuqali. “We have a team that could take their game and give it right back to them.”<\/p>\n
RIT awaits the announcement of its NCAA tournament draw. The Tigers upset top-seeded Minnesota State in the first round last season.<\/p>\n
“We’re not too concerned about who we play,” said Mitchell. “We won a game last year and we want to go even further.”<\/p>\n
[youtube_sc url=https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L0wHsmnnm40]<\/p>\n
[youtube_sc url=https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fNwLmM9P9sk]<\/p>\n
[youtube_sc url=https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MSIfc1UlfuM]<\/p>\n
[youtube_sc url=https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sul8lBlsNok]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000DpOf9XbZ_Vo” g_name=”20160319-AHC-RobertMorris-RIT” 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.f3NYALp8kNT7Zm3Ty_Xd5INHVtYd7_BpQOk7eg0QHK0mru0L6bQ–” ] ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester Institute of Technology scored three power-play goals en route to a 7-4 win over top-seeded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[376],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22300,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22299\/revisions\/22300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22299"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}