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

ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT Men's Hockey team will travel to Sacred Heart this Friday and Saturday for a two-game Atlantic Hockey America series.

RIT looks to get back in the win column after a home game against Army last weekend, losing 5-1 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday. The Pioneers look to extend their four-game winning streak after AHA sweeps at Mercyhurst (W 4-1, 4-2) and visiting Robert Morris (W4-2, 6-3) the past two weekends.

FOLLOW LIVE

Watch: FloHockey.tv/watch

View: 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: sacredhartpioneers.com/sidearmstats/mhockey

TIGER REWIND

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

Second year forward on Saturday Tyler Fukakusa opened the scoring at 13:39 of the first, but Army defeated RIT 3-1 in the second and scored a short-handed goal early in the third en route to the sweep. Fukakusa also assisted the second-year forward Matthew Wilde's power play goal at 17:49 of the season for his second multi-point game in three games, while Wilde also found the net for the third time in four games since returning from 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 chances this season, including 17 in a row in the 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 in the win over Bentley two weeks ago. Eighteen of the Tigers' 23 total skaters have also recorded at least one point in 12 games entering this weekend's series against Sacred Heart.

SIMON TURNS ON 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-goal streak end in the loss at Niagara, but is still enjoying another career year after finishing the 2023-24 season with 18 points, eight goals and 10 assists – all personal bests.

SIMON SAYS LEAVE THE PUCK

Isabelle also entered the week tied for fifth nationally with 152 faceoff wins and of the 18 players who entered the week with at least 125 faceoff wins, she finished in second place with a winning percentage of .620. Isabelle won a career-high 18-of-26 (.692) draws in the 3-2 win over Clarkson, before winning 18-of-23 (.783) faceoffs in the 2-1 Bowling Green setback . He won 15 of 20 faceoffs in Saturday's setback against Army for his 10th double-digit faceoff win in 12 games this season. Also second year Tyler Fukakusa entered the week tied for 16th with 126 wins, while winning 52.1 percent of his draws.

FIFTY SPOT

Senior forward Grady Hobbs scored an assist for his 50th career point in the 6-2 win over Bentley (Nov. 9) and has totaled 26 goals and 24 assists over the past four seasons. It was the second week in a row that a Tiger reached the 50-point plateau behind the senior forward Tanner Andreas scored an assist in Niagara's setback for his 50th point since donning a RIT jersey.

SAVINGS ACCOUNT

Freshman Jakub Krbecek has stopped more 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 over 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), winning his first collegiate start. He also recorded his first career point with an assist and made 33 saves in the 6-2 win over Bentley (Nov. 9). Krbecek is currently tied with RIT goaltending coach Mike Rotolo '17 for the most 30-save games by a RIT freshman in program history of the D1 era.

SLIP-RESISTANT

Prior to the 2024-25 season, RIT had not lost more than three straight games in four seasons. The Tigers' last loss of more than three games was a five-game skid during the 2018-19 season.