Men's Hockey hosts Army in lone home series of November

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT Men's Hockey team welcomes Army to town for an Atlantic Hockey doubleheader this Friday and Saturday - the Tigers' lone home games during the month of November. Both games are scheduled for 7:05 p.m. faceoffs.

RIT split two AHA games at Bentley last weekend, falling in Friday's opener, 5-0, before bouncing back with a decisive 6-2 victory on Saturday to snap the first five-game slide in six years. The Black Knights also split two games at Niagara, earning a 1-0 shutout last Friday before falling, 2-0, on Saturday. 

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TIGER REWIND
RIT scored six unanswered goals to pull out of an early 2-0 deficit in last Saturday's 6-2 victory at Bentley. After the Falcons scored 25 seconds into the game and again two minutes later, the Tigers got one back off the stick of sophomore forward Christian Catalano with  1:23 remaining in the first and pulled away with a four-goal second, including three tallies in the final six minutes of the period. Sophomore forward Matthew Wilde totaled a career-high four points on two goals and two assists in his second game back from injury, while sophomore forward Tyler Fukakusa added a career-high four assists. After Bentley scored on their first two shots of the game, Tiger first-year goaltender Jakub Krbecek stopped all 33 shots he faced, including 15 in the final period, to backstop his third victory of the season.

In Friday's opener, Bentley tallied twice in the first 2:38 of the game and opened a 3-0 lead 1:45 into the second on their way to the shutout. RIT first-year goaltender Ethan David made his first career appearance in a Tiger sweater, coming off the bench to stop 24 of 26 shots in 38:15 of work.

SIMON SAYS LIGHT THE LAMP
RIT junior forward Simon Isabelle leads the Tigers and is tied for fourth in Atlantic Hockey with five goals, and is second on the team lead with seven points this season. He saw a team-high three-game goal scoring streak end in the Niagara loss, but is still tracking on another career year after finishing the 2023-24 campaign with 18 points, eight goals and 10 assists - all personal-bests.  

SIMON SAYS DROP THE PUCK
Isabelle also entered the week ranked fifth nationally with 127 faceoff victories and, of the 22 players that started the week with at least 100 faceoff wins, ranked fifth with a .614 winning percentage. Isabelle won a career-high 18-of-26 (.692) draws in the 3-2 win at Clarkson, before winning 18-of-23 (.783) faceoffs in the 2-1 Bowling Green setback while compiling double-digit faceoff wins in eight of 10 games so far this season. 

FIFTY SPOT
Senior forward Grady Hobbs logged an assist for his 50th career point in last Saturday's Bentley win and has totaled 26 goals and 24 assists the last four seasons. It was the second-straight week a Tiger hit the 50-point plateau after senior forward Tanner Andrew notched an assist in the Niagara setback for 20 goals and 30 assists since pulling on a RIT sweater.  

SPREAD THE LOVE
Wilde and junior forward Tyler Mahan became the 13th and 14th RIT players to score a goal this season during last Saturday's win. Eighteen of the Tigers' 23 total skaters have at least one point through 10 games entering this weekend's series versus Army.

SAVINGS ACCOUNT
First-year Jakub Krbecek currently ranks third in Atlantic Hockey with a .924 save percentage while leading the way with 34.5 saves per game. Also ranked fourth with 207 saves in only six games played, Krbecek has stopped better than 30 shots in each of his six starts, including a career-high 43 saves in the 2-1 OT loss to Bowling Green (Oct. 19) – tied for the ninth-highest single-game total in the nation this year - and also stopped 35 shots in the 4-1 setback at Niagara (Oct. 30). Krbecek won the first of two-straight AHA Rookie of the Week honors after making 32 saves in a 3-2 win over Clarkson (Oct. 6) to win his first collegiate start.

POWER OUTAGE
RIT killed all eight Bentley power play chances during last weekend's doubleheader, including all five in Friday's opener. The Tigers entered the week 18th nationally, killing 86.0 percent of opponent power plays.

THE MONEY LINE
Sophomore fowards Mathew Wilde, Tyler Fukakusa and Christian Catalano totaled 10 points on three goals and seven assists during last Saturday's victory over Bentley. The trio returns as the Tigers' top line after playing 36 games on the same line last year, starting the season as the Tigers' fourth line before making their way up to the second line for the majority of the second semester and all of the postseason. Fukakusa returns after finishing seventh on the squad with 28 points (9G/19A) while Catalano tied for 11th with 17 points (9G/8A). They also previously played on the same line prior to coming to RIT during their time with the OJHL Toronto Junior Canadiens in 2021-22.