ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Freshman Myles Powell cleared the puck out of his zone and found the empty net with 39 seconds remaining in overtime to clinch the victory and the third seed in Atlantic Hockey for the RIT Tigers.
Mercyhurst needed a victory to preserve home ice and had pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker late in overtime trying to push for a goal. With the loss, Mercyhurst will now travel to Bentley to start its 2015 Atlantic Hockey postseason.
RIT has earned a bye to the quarterfinals with the win, and their next matchup is yet to be determined.
The Tigers opened the scoring halfway through the first period when Todd Skirving tapped in his own rebound after Lakers’ goaltender Brandon Wildung struggled to control the initial shot.
RIT thought they had earned a two-goal lead late in the first when Alexander Kuqali’s shot from the point found its way past Wildung, but the goal was disallowed due to a Tigers’ player in the crease.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G00003ObIJr2tbGI” g_name=”20150228-Mercyhurst-RIT-Phillips” 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.f22KbHnR.zMilyEApb6TppcV.otA.yTfUzfRoRNFxUc7bk39fSg–” ]The Lakers came out and tied the game early in the second period when Jonathan Charbonneau’s wrist shot from the left dot squeaked through the equipment of Tigers’ goaltender Mike Rotolo.
