By Tommy Kane

Published: January 19th, 2020

Chapter 11: Down in the Desert

Tiger News and Notes:

Prior to the series, the Tigers were 0-2 against the Sun Devils.

Over the Winter Break, the Tigers tied and lost to Canisius, as well as splitting a series against UMass Lowell.

Will Calverley (F) did not play due to injury.

The RIT Tigers (11-10-3, 7-6-4 AHA) traveled to Tempe, AZ., to face the #14 Arizona State Sun Devils (15-8-3) in a critical out of conference battle. The Tigers were defeated, 6-1, on Jan. 17, 2020, and were defeated, 5-3, on Jan. 18, 2020.

Both games took place at the Oceanside Ice Arena.

First Career Win

Kolby Mathews (G) started against the Umass-Lowell River Hawks on Jan. 11, 2020. In his first career start with the Tigers, Matthews was able to earn his first career win. This was an accomplishing feat, let alone be done against a ranked team (#13 at the time).

“It was a lot. It started out when I found out I was playing, but I treated it like any other game day,” Matthews said when asked about the win. “I played the game that I have been practicing and after I won, the support from the team was amazing. It was a surreal moment.”

Mathews stopped 26 of 28 (.929) Umass-Lowell shots in that contest.

The Coach’s Corner

It had been a while since Coach Wilson last spoke with us, but he seemed in high hopes about the second half of the season. We sat down and discussed what had gone well with the Tigers in the first half, as well as what didn’t go so hot.

“A strength was our balance as a team. We had a lot of people contributing, including how well our Freshmen class has been playing. All of them have really been adding to this team. Our weakness has been our penalties. We have been taking too many awful penalties. Also, special teams need to be better down the stretch.”

Coach also added that the non-conference record has been good for the Tigers, which is always a plus while playing difficult opponents.

Burned in the Third

The Tigers showed promise at the beginning of the first game, but couldn’t get the first tally on the board.

On a long-break, Jordan Sandhu put the first goal past RIT netminder, Logan Drackett. The Sun Devils took the 1-0 lead.

Despite some good efforts by the Tigers throughout the first stanza, Arizona State goalie, Max Prawdzik, made some saves to keep his team ahead by one after the period was over.

The second period started off well for RIT, as Kobe Walker (F) netted one past the Sun Devils, tying the game up at one apiece. He was able to sweep his way around and bury the wrister home.

Drackett made some critical saves down the stretch of the period, especially towards the end. The Sun Devils upped the ante and put offense pressure on the Tigers, but the Tigers did not falter.

The third period was huge for the Sun Devils, tallying five goals very quickly.

Jacob Semike, Johnny Walker, Jack Judson, Willie Knierim, and Jarrod Gourley all scored within a few minutes, making the game 6-1 in Arizona State’s favor.

And with that, Ian Andriano (G) replaced Drackett in the Tiger net.

RIT was unable to score in the remainder of the game and lost, 6-1. The Tigers had 25 shots, while the Sun Devils had 34. In terms of the powerplay, both teams couldn’t score. In the Tiger net, Drackett stopped 18 of 24 (.750) shots, and in the Sun Devil net, Prawdzik saved 24 of 25 (.960) shots.

Rough Turnaround in the Desert

Two Tigers Attempt to Score

The second game of the series started in the direction that the Tigers were hoping, with Walker scoring his second goal of the series. It was a nice passing play, which finished with the goal.

RIT looked like they would get some more opportunities as the period went on, but the Sun Devils tied the game towards the latter stages of the period. Knierim got enough on the puck to squirt it past Drackett.

While it looked like the two would be tied heading into the break, the Tigers got on the rush once again and scored. Shawn Cameron made a clean move and scored a backhand goal right past Prawdzik. The Tigers took the lead, 2-1.

RIT got right to business at the start of the second period as well. It was Cameron again, this time he got the puck on his stick and fired a quick wrister to make it a 3-1 game. Evan DeBrouwer replaced Prawdzik in net for the Sun Devils.

The Tigers then successfully killed off a five-on-three penalty but allowed a goal briefly after. Knierim shot the puck right off the face-off through some traffic and scored, cutting the game to 3-2.

Not too long after, the game was tied by Pj Marrocco. He scored off a Tiger turnover. The Sun Devils have been known to score in bunches and it was evident.

The third period consisted of Arizona State taking the lead and win. Joshua Maniscalco and James Sanchez both scored to make it 5-3.

The Tigers pulled Drackett with about three minutes left in regulation and even got a powerplay opportunity. The effort was not enough though.

The Tigers had 22 shots while the Sun Devils had 28 shots. In terms of the powerplay, RIT had one opportunity but didn’t score. Arizona State scored on one of their six tries. In the Tiger net, Drackett stopped 23 of 28 (.821) shots and in the Sun Devil net, Prawdzik saved five of eight (.625) shots and DeBrouwer saved all 14 shots he faced.

Home-and-Home Battle II

The Tigers are back in action on Jan. 24, and Jan. 25, 2020, as they will face Canisius (6-12-4, 5-7-7 AHA) yet again. It will be another home-and-home series between the two rivals, with the Golden Griffins hosting on Jan. 24 at 7:35 PM, and the Tigers hosting on Jan. 25 at 7:05 PM.

GO TIGERS!

Game One Stats Against the Sun Devils

Game Two Stats Against the Sun Devils