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ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Sometimes, competition is not meant to be settled.
For the second night in a row, RIT and Holy Cross played to a tie, 3-3.
“I thought it was a great series for both teams,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “I have a lot of respect for them. I think the series is going to make both teams a better hockey team down the road.”
“To come to Rochester and battle for 130 minutes, and we didn’t win any of the games, but we got points out of the weekend,” Holy Cross coach David Berard said. “We look at it as a positive step forward.
Holy Cross got its first goal just as a power play expired and RIT got its first before a power play expired.
With RIT goalie Christian Short diving out to cover the puck, Holy Cross’ Castan Sommer beat him to it, poking it in.
Three minutes later, RIT tied it. Josh Mitchell passed it from far left to far right virtually on the goal line to Brady Norrish. Despite that difficult angle, Norrish found a hole to put it through.
A bad clear late in the first gave RIT the lead, 2-1, as Matt Abt fired a one-timer from the left point which sailed into the upper near corner.
The second period also saw three goals. This time, Holy Cross got two in a row to take a 3-2 lead.
First, the Crusaders got a two-on-none breakaway and Michael Aladdin fed Sommer, who fired it home. Three minutes later, a Mike Barrett shot bounced off and over the right leg of Short and into the net.
A little over a minute later, RIT knotted the game again on a nifty play by Chase Norrish, who purposely fired the puck wide off the back boards. He then followed the rebound, picking it up in front of the net and one-timing it past a confused Paul Berrafato.
“It’s a set play on his part,” Wilson said. “He must have seen an opening where he was able to put it off the back board. He’s tried it a couple of times. With the defenseman able to hold you up, it’s not a bad play. That’s almost a chip to yourself.”
The Norrish twins became the first set of twins to score a goal in the same game for RIT.
The third period, despite pucks on goal lines, ricocheting off goal posts and goalies caught out of position, saw no scoring. Ditto the overtime, which was the fourth in a row for Holy Cross (0-1-3), the second time that has happened in school history.
With Robert Morris idle, both teams made up their two games in hand on the Colonials.
“I’m happy with the two points,” Wilson said.
“We lost the games in hand, but we did gain points on them,” Berard said. “We’re two points back. RIT is one point back. The gap has closed. Now it’s going to be a sprint to the finish. Everyone has eight games left. Let the best team win.”
Sometimes, competition is not meant to be settled. Sometimes, it’s meant to fester until the next time, like playoff time.
RIT (12-10-4, 12-5-3) travels all the way to Colorado for a pair at Air Force next weekend.
Holy Cross (13-9-4, 11-5-4) also plays at a military academy for two games, traveling to Army West Point.
