Men’s Hockey Beats Mercyhurst 4-3 In OT; advances in the Atlantic hockey tournament

ROCHESTER, NY – RIT senior defender Gianfranco Cassaro scored the game-winning goal 3:09 into overtime to seal the Tigers’ 4-3 victory over visiting Mercyhurst in Game 2 of the Atlantic Hockey Tournament quarterfinals on Saturday.

Combined with Friday’s 5-3 win, top-seeded RIT completed a sweep of the eighth-seeded Lakers to advance to next weekend’s semifinals against a yet-to-be-determined opponent. The best-of-three series will be played at the Gene Polisseni Center next Friday-Sunday, March 10-12.

HOW DID IT HAPPEN

• Mercyhurst opened the scoring at 4:36 of the first period. Cade Townend fired a shot from the point that trickled under the RIT sophomore goaltender Tommy Scarfone pads and Mickey Burns crashed over the line.
• Tiger first year Xavier Lapointe took a feed from the top of the zone and tied the score on a blast from the left faceoff circle at 10:42 of the first period.
• The Lakers regained the lead with 7:23 left after Eric Esposito stole the puck in the neutral zone and skated back to beat Scarfone, one-on-one, with a backhand to the inside of the left post.
• Mercyhurst opened up a 3-1 lead 14:57 into the second after Marco Reifenberger snuck a wrist shot over Scarfone’s glove from the left faceoff circle.
• RIT made it one on a power play goal with 1:47 left in the second period. First year forward Simon Isabelle collected the puck at the top of the post and scored on a wrist shot that deflected after looking at a Laker defender in front.
• Junior striker Cody Laskosky tied the game 3-3 with 16:14 left in the third period. Cassaro skated the puck from center ice around the Laker net before backhanding it to Laskosky behind the left post for the goal.
• RIT killed off the remaining 1:56 of penalty time to start overtime before Mercyhurst was whistled for too many players on the ice with 17:39 on the clock. Senior striker Caleb Moretz dug the puck from the left sideboard and got the puck to Laskosky at the point. Laskosky slid the puck to Cassaro at the top of the right faceoff circle, whereupon he got a one-timer off the bottom of the crossbar into the top left corner of the net for the game winner.

GAME NOTES

• RIT improved to 20-8 in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Hockey Tournament, including a 14-3 mark at home, while advancing to the semifinals for the 10th time in 12 quarterfinals.
• Cassaro’s OT game-winner was his 30th point and 13th of the season. He finished the regular season as the number one defenseman in the country in goals.
• Scarfone had 32 saves in his 13th 30-plus save effort of the season and improved to 21-9-1 this winter.
• Lapointe’s goal was the first Tiger jersey of his career.
• RIT finished the game with 44 shots — its second-highest total this season behind 52 in Friday’s decision.
• Mercyhurst goalie Tyler Harmon made 40 saves in the loss. He also stopped 47 shots in Friday’s setback.

WHAT NEXT

All three other Atlantic Hockey Tournament quarterfinal series have advanced to a three-way tie on Sunday. Stay tuned AtlanticHockeyOnline.com and RITathetics.com, who will be hosted by Tiger next weekend.