If John Madden was still handing out his Thanksgiving Day awards, this year’s Turducken – with its eight legs – would go to the Rochester Institute of Technology hockey team.
Dan Ringwald met the 100-point milestone recently for red-hot RIT.
The Tigers turned the fortunes of an 0-5-0 start into an eight-game win streak in league play and the top spot in Atlantic Hockey. Since getting swept by defending champion Air Force on Oct. 23-24, the Tigers have completed sweeps of Connecticut, Army, Merychurst (on the road) and Sacred Heart. The win streak is the longest in NCAA Division I.
“I liked how we were playing when we were 0-5 and I like how we are playing having won eight straight,” coach Wayne Wilson said.
A big difference in the turnaround was winning the close contests. RIT dropped its first three one-goal decisions and has since won four in a row. RIT has benefited from home cooking, having won its last eight contests at Ritter Arena.
RIT leads the league with 3.54 goals per game, and has dropped its goals against by almost three-quarters of a goal to 2.38. The power play is 22 percentage points better than last season and the penalty kill has improved 42 points.
Junior Andrew Favot (five goals) leads the league with 18 points – he also leads the league with 11 points (two goals) on the power play. Favot had 10 goals as a sophomore.
All-star defenseman Dan Ringwald continues to pile up the points. He has three power play goals, two even-strength tallies and nine assists. His assist late in Saturday’s 5-3 win over Sacred Heart was the 100th point of his distinguished career, in his 118th contest.
RIT enters the month of December with a winning mark for the first time in five seasons at Division I. The Tigers have the holiday weekend off, and have just three games remaining before the new year: Dec. 4-5 at Holy Cross and Dec. 12 against future Atlantic Hockey foe Niagara.
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG
Making short work – Mercyhurst junior forward Mike Gurtler became the seventh player in NCAA Div. I history to record a short-handed hat trick in a 5-1 win over Holy Cross on Friday. It was the first hat trick of his career. He added two assists the following night in a 4-1 triumph over the Crusaders, earning the Atlantic Hockey player of the week award.
On one night, Gurtler became one of only 22 players in MAAC/Atlantic Hockey history to record three short-handed goals in a season. Shawn Mansoff of Quinnipiac (2000) and Dave Borelli of Mercyhurst (2006) own the record with five. Five more players have posted four in a season.
Another brick in the wall – Canisius has posted three consecutive shutout wins, setting a school record. It is just the ninth time in NCAA hockey history that a team has performed that feat and the fourth time since 1965, joining Air Force in 2009, Colgate in 2008 and Wisconsin in 2006. The shutout span of 187 minutes, 45 seconds is the 10th-longest in NCAA history.
Naturally, Griffin goalies Dan Morrison and Andrew Loewen shared the Atlantic Hockey goaltender of the week award. Morrison made 19 stops in a 1-0 win over Connecticut on Nov. 15. Morrison made 36 saves in a 7-0 win over AIC on Friday, his third shutout of the season. Loewen made 32 saves in the 4-0 win over AIC on Saturday, shutting down the Yellow Jackets on seven power-play opportunities, four in the final period alone. His sixth career shutout tied the Canisius career mark with Bryan Worosz (2001-05).
No shutouts here – Air Force owns the league’s longest current streak of consecutive games with at least one goal at 91. The last time the Falcons were shut out was Oct. 26, 2007 (Bentley 4-0).
Consecutive games with goal: Air Force 91; RIT 37; Sacred Heart 28; Mercyhurst 14; Canisius 10; Bentley 5; Holy Cross 4; Army 2; AIC 0; Connecticut 0.
Hot hand – Canisius is unbeaten in its last six (5-0-1), its longest streak since 2003-04. The Golden Griffins have outscored the opposition 26-11 during the streak.
“The team is rolling on all cylinders right now,” said senior Dave Cianfrini. “The forwards, the defenders and the goalies are all playing really well. We are sticking to our systems and it is showing in our results.”
The Golden Griffins had a seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) in February and March of 2001. Canisius puts its mark on the line this weekend at Army on Friday and Saturday.
Chasing the Tigers – Air Force (6-1-3 league) is unbeaten in its last seven (4-0-3), and trails RIT by only one point in the battle for first place. The Falcons have managed a win and a tie in each of the last three weekend series with Bentley, Holy Cross and Connecticut. It is Air Force’s longest unbeaten streak since opening the 2008-09 season with 13 consecutive wins.
Struggling at AIC – The Yellow Jackets were blanked by Canisius, 7-0 and 4-0. The last time AIC was shut out on consecutive nights was early last season, 6-0 at Union on Dec. 9 and 4-0 at Massachusetts on Dec. 12. AIC has managed just five goals in the last six games.
Skid buster – Holy Cross broke an 0-4-1 streak with a 5-0 win over visiting Connecticut on Tuesday. The Huskies have been shut out three times this season, and have just three goals in their last four games (0-3-1).
At this point last season – Only four teams in Atlantic Hockey enjoy better records at this point of the season than last year. RIT (8-5) is five points better, Sacred Heart (3-7-2) is two points better and Holy Cross (4-7-2) and Army (3-8-2) are one point better. Canisius (7-6-1) has one more win but equal points. Teams off to a worse start are Air Force (6-5-3, 11 points down), Mercyhurst (4-9-1, two points down), Connecticut (2-9-2, two points down), AIC (2-8-1, one point down) and Bentley (5-5-2, one point down).
Special gains – Seven of the ten Atlantic Hockey teams have seen an improvement on the power play over last season’s final numbers, led by AIC (plus-61 percentage points) and Sacred Heart (plus-52). Mercyhust is down 105 points.
Five of the ten teams have made improvements on the penalty kill, led by Air Force (plus 50 points) and RIT (plus 42 points). The two teams which have suffered the biggest drops on penalty kill are Mercyhurst (minus 87 points) and Sacred Heart (minus 68).
Army’s numbers are practically the same in goals, goals against and penalty kill and 14 points up on the power play.
Tough in net – Nine goalies are stopping better than nine of every 10 shots, two more if you round up the third decimal point. AIC freshman Ben Meisner leads the way with a .933 save percentage. Dan Morrison of Canisius is second at .927.
Working overtime – Air Force and Sacred Heart have already played four overtime contests. Air Force is 1-0-3, Sacred Heart is 1-1-2. Army, Holy Cross and Connecticut have tied both of their OT games. AIC, Mercyhurst and Canisius tied their only OT contests. Bentley is 0-1-2 and RIT is 0-1.
Coming up – Canisius takes its six-game unbeaten streak to Army on Friday and Saturday. Bentley faces host RPI and either Union or Lake Superior State in the Rensselaer Holiday Tournament. Mercyhurst plays a set at American International. In non-league games on Saturday, Holy Cross hosts Yale and Connecticut plays at Brown.
