The Rochester Institute of Technology women’s team hosted its first game at Blue Cross Arena as part of the school’s Brick City homecoming weekend.
The Tigers rode a pair of power-play goals to defeat Yale (0-2-0) by a 3-0 count.
“The girls were so excited to get to BCA and play a game,” said RIT coach Scott McDonald. “We have lost some of our power-play skaters to injury, so we were trying out some new combinations this week. This afternoon, it seemed like it was more feel and react rather than structure.”
The Bulldogs pinned RIT in its own end for the opening 1:20 of the first period, registering two good shots on goal, but the Tigers’ first line weathered the storm and dumped the puck in on the Yale net to get a faceoff.
Junior Erin Zach won the ensuing draw back to Morgan Scoyne at the point who rifled a shot through a crowd to score at 1:37.
“The first goal is always big,” said McDonald. “Our game plan was to get traffic in front of their net and it worked.”
Play went back and forth for much of the opening period until RIT took a 2-0 lead at 13:05 when Celeste Brown poked the puck across the goal line during a scramble while the Tigers were on the power play.
“You want to be able to sustain the level of play and that is something we are struggling with,” said Yale coach Joakim Flygh. “I think we are a good defensive team, but are not scoring goals. We are working hard, but have to start doing the little things well.”
RIT (3-3-0) extended its lead midway through the second period with another power-play goal at 8:52. Zach bounced a wrap around attempt off the back of the stick of Yale goaltender Jaimie Leonoff to stake the Tigers to a 3-0 lead.
Despite trailing on the scoreboard, Yale kept skating hard, being outshot by a narrow 14-12 margin in the second period and forced RIT netminder Ali Binnington to make a pair of strong saves to keep the Bulldogs off the scoreboard.
Binnington earned her second shutout of the season this afternoon.
