Men's Hockey falls to Holy Cross, 5-1, in Atlantic Hockey Semifinal Game 3

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – RIT dropped a 5-1 loss to visiting Holy Cross in the deciding game of the Atlantic Hockey Tournament Semifinals, Sunday.
 
The seventh-seeded Crusaders won the best-of-three series, 2-1, to advance past the top-seeded Tigers into next Saturday's championship game. Holy Cross won Friday's opener, 1-0, in OT before RIT bounced back for a 4-3 win in OT on Saturday.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Holy Cross scored a pair of goals in the final three minutes of the first period to build a 2-0 lead. Jack Ricketts skated into the slot and roofed a shot over Tiger sophomore goaltender Tommy Scarfone's blocker with 2:45 on the clock before Grayson Constable cleaned up his own rebound to finish a short-handed rush with 1:38 remaining.
• RIT got on the board at 9:09 of the second period after sophomore forward Grady Hobbs circled a puck off the right half boards to the top of the zone and into the slot for a wrist shot through a crowd past Holy Cross goaltender Jason Grande.
• The Crusaders retook a two goal lead with 1:26 left in the second period off a turnover behind the Tiger net. Constable took a short feed from Tyler Ghirardosi and stuffed a shot inside the left post for a 3-1 lead.
• Holy Cross held RIT scoreless the rest of the way before tacking on a pair of empty net goals in the final three minutes of regulation to put the game out of reach. 

GAME NOTES

• RIT fought off six penalties and 26 minutes worth of penalty minutes during the game.
• After only totaling five shots in the first period, the Tigers came back to finish with a 26-24 advantage.   
• Grande finished with 25 saves, only allowing one goal and stopping 65 of the 66 shots he saw in Holy Cross' two victories during the series.
• Scarfone totaled 19 saves to break RIT's single-season Division I-era program record, surpassing Jared DeMichiel's 920 saves (2009-10) with 934 this winter. Scarfone also finished second in single-season wins with a 22-11-1 record and tied for third with 34 appearances.
• RIT finished with a 25-13-1 record for the second-winningest season in the Division-I era (28-12-1, 2009-10) while winning its first Atlantic Hockey regular-season title since 2010-11 with a 18-7-1 conference mark.
• Holy Cross also upset second-seeded AIC in three games during last weekend's Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals.