1/22/2022
Henrietta N.Y. -- The RIT Tigers dropped the first game of a home-and-home against Niagara University by a score of 5-3. Niagara was in control throughout the game. However, the Tiger did have a little fight left in them near the end of the game.
The first period set the tone for the game as Niagara went up early with Lars Rodne netting the first of five for Niagara. The period was controlled by Niagara as they registered twenty shots to RIT's three. It was not until the fifteen-minute mark of the period that the Tigers recorded a shot on goal
The story of the first period was the Tiger's offensive play that was plagued by shots going high and wide of the net. RIT's slow start would set them behind the eight ball for the rest of the game.
The Tigers entered the second stanza only down one goal but, Carter Randlev changed that as he added to Niagara's lead about seven minutes into the period. The Tigers started to fight back as Andrew Petrucci netted the first Tigers goal only a could minutes after Randlev's. The Tigers started to come back but their momentum was shattered by two more Niagara goals before the end of the period. Chris Harpur and Lars Rodne's second goal of the game.
Moving into the third period the Tigers were down 3-1, but that changed following yet another Niagara goal by Jordan Wiseman. This was the senior defenseman's first colligate goal in his three years with the Purple Eagles. He has led the team in blocked shots for two of those years.
Wiseman's goal would end the scoring for the Purple Eagles but RIT would not go down without a fight. In teh closing moments of the game, RIT started to control the game and fight back on the in-the-shot totals. In the closing minute of the game, Jake Joffe wasted no time as he netted two goals in a matter of thirty seconds. But the Tiger comeback was not to be as time expired with the Tigers on the wrong end of a 5-3 score.
Postgame both Tigers coach Wayne Wilson and Captain Dan Willett both agreed that "this was not the game we wanted to play, that was not tiger hockey." Willett went on to say "We need to be better overall this was just bad, started slow, and was never able to get back into the game."
This was a milestone game for the captain as it was his 150th game for the Tigers he is now only four games behind the program leader Josh Mitchell (2012-16) at 154 games.
Goaltender Tommy Scarfone stopped 29 of the 34 shots faced in the losing effort. the Tigers fall to a 10-11-2 overall record and a 6-6-2 AHA. While Niagara improves to 7-14-2 overall and 6-7-2 in AHA play. The Tigers have the other leg of the home-and-home tomorrow night as they travel out to Lewiston to take on the Purple Eagles at Dwyer Arena on the campus of Niagara University.