Men's Hockey falls to Boston University, 6-3, in NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinals

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The RIT Men's Hockey team fell to second-ranked Boston University, 6-3, in the NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinals, Thursday, at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.
 
Fifth-year defenseman Gianfranco Cassaro was credited with his 18th goal of the season to go along with an assist, while graduate-student forward Elijah Gonsalves netted his team-high 20th goal and senior forward Cody Laskosky scored his 14th.  
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• BU started the scoring at 8:04 of the first after Lane Hudson faked a shot from outside the left post and dragged a puck to his backhand to beat Tiger junior goaltender Tommy Scarfone to the right post.
• The Terriers finished a 2-on-1 break just over two minutes later for a 2-0 lead after Ryan Greene scored over Scarfone's glove with 6:59 on the clock.
• RIT got on the board at 15:40 of the first with a power-play goal following a BU hooking penalty. Cassaro blasted a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle the deflected off Mathieu Caron's pads outside the right post. First-year forward Matthew Wilde got a stick on the loose puck that found Gonsalves, who flipped a shot over BU goaltender's Mathieu Caron's glove.
• The Terriers took a 3-1 lead at 8:16 of the second after Sam Stevens took a long cross-ice feed from Hudson in the right faceoff circle and scored on a shot under Scarfone's pads.
• Cassaro pulled the Tigers back within one after collecting a long outlet pass by graduate student defenseman Ryan Nicholson in the neutral zone and skating back to beat Caron from the right faceoff circle, far post, at 15:20, but BU retook a two-goal lead less than two minutes later after Macklin Celbrini finished a goal in transition at 17:01.
• The Terriers held of the RIT comeback bid in the third before putting the game away with an empty-net goal at 15:46. Laskosky finished cross-ice feed from first-year forward Christian Catalano on a rush with 57 seconds left in regulation for the final goal of the night.   

GAME NOTES

• RIT made its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the Division I era and first since making back-to-back appearances in 2015-16.
• The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Tigers during which they claimed the Atlantic Hockey regular-season and post-season titles.
• RIT ended the season with a 27-10-2 record, one shy of the D-1 era record 28 during the 2010 squad's run to the Frozen Four, while tying for the second-highest win total in Atlantic Hockey history.
• Cassaro's finished the season leading all defensemen in the country in goals while finishing with a career-high 38 points.
• Gonsalves ended his Tiger career with a career-high 38 points this season to move up to 11th in D1-era history with 108 points on 47 goals and 61 assists.  
• Wilde scored a point in his team-leading 11th-straight game, finishing the winter with the most points (35) and goals (19) by a RIT first-year in the D1 era.  
• Scarfone finished the game with 27 assists to become the Tigers' D1-era career saves leader with 2,494 the last three seasons while also becoming the first RIT goaltender with over 1,000 saves in a season with 1,015. He also made his 90th career appearance in a RIT sweater - only the third RIT goaltender to achieve the milestone.