RIT DOWNS AIC 6-2
West Springfield, Mass. (January
26, 2007).- Led by two goals from Matt Smith, RIT downed
AIC 6-2 Friday evening at the Olympia Ice Center, in AHA action.
The loss drops the Yellow Jackets to 4-16-0 in the AHA and 4-19-0
overall. The win propels RIT to a 15-8-2 overall record and a
14-4-1 record in the AHA.
The game didn't see its first goal until late in the first frame at the 18:20 mark when the Tigers leading goal scorer Matt Smith flipped in a shot from just above the right face-off circle. The goal followed a barrage of shots by RIT that eventually led to the score.
The second-frame was dominated by AIC until the last two minutes. AIC tied the score at one at the 9:17 mark when Greg Genovese (Hingham, Mass.) took a feed from freshman Jay Holladay (Virginia Beach, VA) and Josh Froese (Winkler, MB) and scored on a backhand, off of his own rebound. The Yellow Jackets would take the lead later on at the 15:52 mark when Matt Woodard (St. Louis Park, MN) put a shot on net from the point that beat Tigers goalie Jocelyn Guimond. The assist was credited to senior forward Jeason Lecours (Sherbrooke. PQ). Despite having a 2-1 lead with under two minutes, the Tigers scored two goals, one with just over a minute showing, by Smith, and another with under a second left by Ricky Walton. Smith's score, his second, was a power-play goal.
The swing at the end of the second would prove to be all the momentum the Tigers would need. RIT scored three times, unanswered in the final period, propelling them to a 6-2 victory. For RIT Steve Pinizzotto skated in and scored a power-play goal just under three minutes into the period. Just over four minutes later the Tigers struck again when Darrell Draper scored his first goal of the game, short-handed. RIT would add one more at the 17:07 mark when Anton Kharin flipped a wrist shot from the slot past AIC goalie Tom Fenton (Sarnia, Ontario).
Fenton recorded 26 saves for the Yellow Jackets while Guimond turned away 35 shots for the Tigers.
The team's will finish the back end of their weekend series
tomorrow afternoon at 3:00pm.