RIT defeated Geneseo 8-4 in the opening game of the Rochester Hockey Cup on Friday at Brockport’s Tuttle North Arena. Geneseo jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead early in the first period, but the Tiger offense soon got rolling towards the win.
The Tigers were sloppy with the puck in their own zone during the opening period of the game, and Geneseo made RIT pay the price early. Ice Knight Pat McKendry grabbed a soft cross-ice pass in the middle of the RIT slot and tucked it into the top right corner of the net just 3:57 into the game for the early 1-0 Geneseo lead.
That gave the Ice Knights the jump, but they couldn’t hold the RIT offense off of the boards. At the 7:42 mark, Tiger Peter Bournazakis tipped a shot from the point by Jerry Galway into the net during a power play to tie the score at 1-1.
Geneseo played a very aggressive, in-your-face defense for the first two periods of the game. Every RIT puck carrier found very little breathing room as they were quickly marked by an Ice Knight defender. While this worked well most of the time, it did break down occasionally and RIT took advantage of those openings to get the offense rolling.
RIT took the lead at 10:02 as a broken play through center ice turned into a goal by Brian Armes. The Tigers then took a 3-1 lead 19:00 into the period as Josh Faulkner picked up a loose puck behind the Geneseo net, went around the far side, and slid a backhander in for the score.
Geneseo swarmed the Tiger net during a power play early in the period, but couldn’t finish on any of the three first-rate scoring chances that they had.
The RIT offense continued to gather steam throughout the second period as the special teams went to work. Power-play goals by Brian Armes (7:32) and Mike Bournazakis (8:48) staked the Tigers to a commanding 5-1 lead.
Mike Bournazakis finished off a 3-on-1 break at 16:51 to tally his second goal of the night at 16:51, and Josh Myers ended the RIT second-period onslaught with a tally at 19:57 as the Tigers went to the locker room with a comfortable 7-1 lead.
Perhaps RIT was a little too comfortable between periods, as they came out and coasted during the third. Both coaches also put in freshman goaltenders to give them some playing time.
Geneseo started to control play and tallied on two odd-man breaks during the first ten minutes of the third. Bryan Bowser converted a 2-on-0 break at 1:27, and finished off a 2-on-1 at 8:31 to give Geneseo some momentum.
The Tigers’ lone goal of the period also came on a breakaway, as Josh Faulkner took a long pass from across the neutral zone to break in alone and slide it under the Ice Knight goalie.
Geneseo closed out the scoring at 19:25. Jon Schnepf sent a high slapshot from center ice that hit Tiger netminder Rob Boope in the chest, bounced over his shoulder, and into the net.
With the win, RIT moves on to meet Brockport in the Rochester Hockey Cup championship game. Geneseo will play Hobart in the consolation.
