Pioneers blast RIT
BRIDGEPORT — The hottest team in Atlantic Hockey remains the hottest team.
Sacred Heart, which closed the regular season with eight wins in its last 11 games, dominated Rochester Institute of Technology, 9-4, Wednesday night at the Webster Bank Arena in the first game of the best-of-3 Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals.
“We had some time off and you never know how your team is going to react,” Sacred Heart coach C.J. Marottolo said. “We worked on all parts of our game and I’m happy with our effort tonight and the way we played overall.”
The two teams will play Game 2 of the best-of-3 series at 7:05 p.m. Thursday night. If necessary, the third game is scheduled for Friday night, also at 7:05 p.m. Both are slated for Webster Bank Arena.
“RIT is a program with a lot of pride,” Marottolo said. “I expect them to bring it tomorrow night and we have to be better than we were tonight. It’s going to be a harder game tomorrow night.”
It didn’t take long for the Pioneers to get on the board in what was an offensive first period for both sides. Less than four minutes in, Ruslan Rakhmatov’s shot from the left circle bounced off the back boards and right to Jordan Kaplan in front of the crease, where he converted it for a 1-0 lead.
“We talked about it in pre-scout that their goalie comes out of the net a lot,” Kaplan said. “I just went to the net and got a good bounce.”
Sacred Heart (16-15-4) made it 2-0 just over a minute later when Vito Bavaro skated around RIT goalie Logan Drackett and popped the puck into the bottom right corner of the net.
RIT (15-16-4) closed it to 2-1 at the midway point of the period when Alden Dupuis took a pass of the faceoff in between the circles and blasted a shot of the right shoulder of Sacred Heart goaltender Josh Benson.
The Pioneers made it 3-1 at the 15:11 mark when Alex Bates skated down the right
side and put the puck past Drackett into the top right corner of the net.
RIT got back within one with just over a minute remaining in the period when a shot off Benson’s chest went right to Abbott Girduckis, who put the puck in the net.
The second period was all Sacred Heart as the Pioneers scored four times to make it 7-2.
“We had too many defensive lapses,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “We were puck watching on some of those goals and we let them come right down the pike. Everything we could do wrong, we did tonight. That was an old-fashioned kicking we haven’t had in a while.”
Kaplan collected his second goal of the night when he scored from the left side just over nine minutes into the period.
Austin Magera made it 5-2 with a goal off the faceoff from the left circle. That ended Drackett’s night in goal for the Tigers as he was pulled in favor of Ian Andriano.
Andriano fared no better in goal as he was caught out of position behind his own net and Sacred Heart’s Matt Tugnutt took advantage of it as the second of two whacks at the puck send it into the unmanned net to make it 6-2.
Ryan Steele added a goal from right in front of the net with 58 seconds remaining in the second peri-
od to make it 7-2.
Sacred Heart poured it on in the third period when Marc Johnstone and Tugnett scored goals to expand the score as the Pioneers had goals from each of their top three lines.
“Our guys have a really firm belief in each other, and our team game has really jumped,” Marottolo said. “There’s a lot of depth in our locker room. If one line isn’t doing it, the next line is.”
Dupuis scored his second goal of the night and Nick Bruce added another as RIT scored twice in the final three minutes to wrap up the scoring.
Benson stopped 27 shots in net for the Pioneers to record his 13th win of the season.
“Benson has played well all year,” Marottolo said. “He gives us confidence.”