Men's Hockey travels to Sacred Heart for AHA weekend series

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT Men's Hockey team travels to Sacred Heart for a two-game Atlantic Hockey America series this Friday and Saturday. 

RIT looks to get back into the win column following a home sweep at the hands of Army last weekend, falling 5-1 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday. The Pioneers look to extend a four-game winning streak following AHA sweeps at Mercyhurst (W 4-1, 4-2) and visiting Robert Morris (W4-2, 6-3) the last two weekends. 

FOLLOW LIVE
Watch: FloHockey.tv/watch
Watch: SNY (NY Metro Region)
Local Audio: WITR 89.7 FM or FOX Sports 1280 AM
Web Audio: witr.rit.edu or foxsports1280.iheart.com
PxP/Color: Ed Trefzger, Matt Campbell
Live Stats: sacredheartpioneers.com/sidearmstats/mhockey

TIGER REWIND
RIT dropped both ends of an Atlantic Hockey doubleheader last weekend to visiting Army. On Friday, Tiger junior forward Simon Isabelle scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season to knot the score, 1-1, 4:15 into the game, but the Black Knights tallied four-unanswered goals the rest of the way to put away the opener.

On Saturday, sophomore forward Tyler Fukakusa opened the scoring at 13:39 of the first, but Army out-scored RIT, 3-1, in the second and tacked on a short-handed goal early in the third en route to the sweep. Fukakusa also assisted sophomore forward Matthew Wilde's power-play goal at 17:49 of the season for his second multi-point game in three outings, while Wilde also found the net for the third time in four games since returning from a pre-season injury.  

THE KILLERS
The RIT penalty kill currently leads Atlantic Hockey and ranks 10th nationally at 88.0 percent. The Tigers enter the Sacred Heart series having killed 44 of 50 extra man opportunities this season, including 17-straight over their last five games since Niagara finished 1-for-5.  

SPREAD THE LOVE
Sophomore forward Matthew Wilde and junior forward Tyler Mahan became the 13th and 14th RIT players to score a goal this season during the victory over Bentley two weeks ago. Eighteen of the Tigers' 23 total skaters also have at least one point through 12 games entering this weekend's series versus Sacred Heart.

SIMON SAYS LIGHT THE LAMP
RIT junior forward Simon Isabelle leads the Tigers and is tied for fourth in Atlantic Hockey with six goals, and is tied for second on the team with eight points this season. He saw a team-high four-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 tied for fifth nationally with 152 faceoff victories and, of the 18 players that started the week with at least 125 faceoff wins, ranked second with a .620 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. He won 15-of-20 faceoffs in Saturday's Army setback for his 10th double-digit faceoff win performance in 12 games this season. Additionally, sophomore Tyler Fukakusa entered the week tied for 16th with 126 victories while winning 52.1 percent of his draws.

FIFTY SPOT
Senior forward Grady Hobbs logged an assist for his 50th career point in the 6-2 win over Bentley (Nov. 9) 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 his 50th point since pulling on a RIT sweater.  

SAVINGS ACCOUNT
First-year Jakub Krbecek has stopped better than 30 shots in each of his eight starts this season, 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. He also logged his first career point with an assist to go along with 33 saves in the 6-2 win over Bentley (Nov. 9). Krbecek is currently tied with RIT goalie coach Mike Rotolo '17 for the most 30-save games by a RIT first-year in D1-era program history. 

SLIP-RESISTANT
Prior to the 2024-25 campaign, RIT hadn't lost more than three games in a row in four seasons. The Tigers' last slide of more than three games was a five-game skid during the 2018-19 season.