ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Twentieth-ranked RIT closes the regular season with a home-and-home doubleheader opposite Atlantic Hockey foe Canisius this Friday and Saturday. 

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Live Stats: FRIDAY | SATURDAY
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PLAYOFF UPDATE

• With Bentley's 5-1 victory over second-place Holy Cross on Thursday night, RIT clinched its second-consecutive Bob DeGregorio Trophy as Atlantic Hockey Regular Season Champion. 
• Already assured of a first-round bye for the Atlantic Hockey Tournament, the Tigers will host a best-of-three quarterfinal series Friday-Sunday, March 8-10, and would have home ice advantage throughout the playoffs should they advance. Opponents and game times are to be determined and announced. 

TIGER TRACKS

• RIT has put together the seventh 20-win campaign in 19 years at the Division-I level. Coupled with a 25-win season in 2022-23, the Tigers put together back-to-back 20-win seasons for only the second time in the Division-I era and first since finishing with a 23-13-2 record in 2008-09 and a 28-12-1 mark in 2009-10.
• RIT entered the week ranked ninth nationally with 3.59 goals per game, including 4.40 over its last 10 games. The Tigers were also 11th in scoring defense allowing 2.50 goals per game and ninth with a 1.09 scoring margin. RIT's penalty kill ranked ninth at .849 while the power play was 15th at .235.
• RIT was ranked in the USCHO.com national poll for the 14th-consecutive week, sitting 20th after climbing as high as No. 18 last month. The Tigers also received votes in the USA Hockey rankings for the second-straight week after ranking inside the top-20 for eight of the previous nine weeks.
• RIT split an Atlantic Hockey doubleheader with visiting Air Force last weekend, earning a 7-3 victory on Friday before falling, 3-2, on Saturday. Junior forward Carter Wilkie totaled a career-high four points, including his first career hat trick, in Friday's win. Junior forward Tanner Andrew scored 2:54 into the game before Wilkie notched back-to-back shorthanded goals in a 1:16 span for a 3-0 lead with 7:39 left in the first. Graduate student forward Elijah Gonsalves tallied 21 seconds into the second period for a 4-0 lead, before goals by senior forward Cody Laskosky, Wilkie and first-year forward Matthew Wilde later completed the victory.
• RIT built a 2-1 lead after two periods on goals by Wilde and junior forward Grady Hobbs in Saturday's rematch, but the Falcons found the equalizer 2:49 into the third and what proved to be the game-winner at 12:42 to close the weekend.
• Wilkie was only the second D1-era Tiger to score two short-handed goals in a game and first since Myles Powell in a 6-3 win at Bentley on Oct. 29, 2016. RIT also hadn't tallied shorthanded twice since Alden Dupuis and Will Calverley each found the net in an 8-4 win versus Niagara on Dec. 15, 2018.
• Wilkie also logged the Tigers' 20th D1-era hat trick as well as the second this season, joining Laskosky, who tallied three times in the 7-1 win at Robert Morris (Jan. 20). He also moved into a tie for 13th on the D1-era scoring list with 104 points on 41 goals and 63 assists the last three seasons. 
• Wilkie entered the week third in Atlantic Hockey with 1.06 points per game, fifth with 34 points, tied for fourth with 14 goals and seventh with 20 assists. He was also second in the country with 443 faceoff wins and tied for second with three shorthanded goals.  
• Senior defenseman Aiden Hansen-Bukata was named Atlantic Hockey Defensive Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks after logging a pair of assists in both Air Force contests. In 10 games since returning from a two-game injury absence, he has totaled 15 points (3G/12A) and has only been held scoreless once. In 29 appearances this winter, he has only been held without a point eight times and ranks second in Atlantic Hockey with 0.76 assists per game and 10th with 0.90 points per game.
• Laskosky finished the Air Force series with four points on a goal and three assists, moving into a tie for 25th on the D1-era scoring list with 79 points on 31 goals and 48 assists. Riding a six-game point streak (2G/9A), he entered the week second in Atlantic Hockey with 1.13 points per game, tied for second with 36 points, third with 23 assists and tied for eighth with 13 goals. 
• Junior goaltender Tommy Scarfone totaled 25 saves on Friday to improve to 18-7-2 this winter – tied for the third-highest single-season win total in the D1-era. He entered the week seventh nationally with a .923 save percentage and 14th with a 2.37 goals against average. 
• Fifth-year defenseman Gianfranco Cassaro leads all defensemen nationally with 13 goals this season while his five game-winning tallies are tied for the nation's fifth-highest total among all skaters.