Men's Hockey travels to Robert Morris for AHA doubleheader

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT Men's Hockey team will travel to Pennsylvania for a pair of games with Atlantic Hockey America (AHA) foe Robert Morris on Friday (7:05 PM) and Saturday (7:05 PM) to continue a stretch of 14-straight conference games to finish the regular season looking to make up ground in the latest AHA standings.
 
The Tigers look to bounce back from back-to-back 5-2 losses at Canisius last weekend to follow up a 5-2 exhibition win over Guelph (Jan. 4) to start the New Year. The Colonials are winless in four games since the calendar flipped to 2025, including a 4-1 loss and a 2-2 tie at Holy Cross last weekend.
 
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TIGER REWIND
RIT fell at Canisius last Friday and Saturday by identical 5-2 scores in it first conference games of the spring semester. The Golden Griffins scored 24 seconds into Friday night's opener, but goals by sophomore forwards Mattew Wilde and Tyler Fukakusa during a 3:24 span pushed the Tigers to a 2-1 lead. Canisius bounced back with two goals in the first 3:32 of the second period to finish the game with four-unanswered tallies en route to the win. First-year goaltender Jakub Krbecek totaled 35 saves, including 17 in the first period.
 
Canisius tallied 3:30 into Saturday's rematch and again at 4:31 of the second before RIT junior defenseman Xavier Lapointe made it a one-goal game with a power-play goal at 15:10. The Golden Griffins notched three-straight goals for a 5-1 lead with less than three minutes left in regulation before Wilde scored a power-play goal with 42.8 on the clock. First-year goaltender Ethan David finished the night with 20 saves.

RIT split a two-game visit by Robert Morris last month, bouncing back from a 7-3 loss in the opener (Dec. 6) for a 4-3 OT victory (Dec. 7) prior to the three-week holiday layoff. Lapointe notched a pair of goals before sophomore forward Christian Catalano later tallied the game-winner 2:14 into the extra period in the victory, while David made 24 saves to backstop his first win in a Tiger sweater. The night before, RIT couldn't find its way out of a 5-1 deficit early in the third period as senior defenseman Douglas Scott scored his first-career goal and first-year forward Ryan Williams notched his first career point with an assist.  

NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP
Sophomore forward Tyler Fukakusa entered the weekend tied for 15th nationally in scoring with 24 points and tied for third with 18 assists, including 15 points (5G/10A) over the Tigers' last 11 games.

• Fukakusa leads Atlantic Hockey with 0.82 assists per game and is third with 1.09 points per game, including at least one point in all but six games this season and 10 of the Tigers' last 11 outings.
• He notched a career-high four assists in the 6-2 win at Bentley (Nov. 9) and also scored a goal and an assist in back-to-back games versus Army (Nov. 16) and Sacred Heart (Nov. 22) before adding two assists opposite the Pioneers (Nov. 17) for one of his six multi-point games this winter.
• Fukakusa also entered the weekend tied for seventh nationally with 255 faceoff victories while winning 55.4 percent of his draws this season. He tied a career-high winning 18-of-31 faceoffs in the Robert Morris opener and also won 13-of-15 draws (.867) in the New Hampshire opener during his current 11-game streak with double-digit faceoff wins. 

WELCOME MATT
Sophomore forward Matthew Wilde currently leads Atlantic Hockey with 1.21 points per game and 0.64 goals per game, scoring at least one point in 10 of the last 14 games since missing the Tigers' first eight contests with a preseason injury.  He leads the team lead with nine  goals and is tied for second with 17 points.

• He scored a career-high four points on two goals and two assists in the 6-2 win at Bentley (Nov. 9) for the first of three multi-point games in November.
• Wilde was credited with four points during the two-game set at Sacred Heart, starting with two assists in the opener before logging a goal and an assist the following night.
• Wilde was named to the 2024-25 Atlantic Hockey Preseason All-Conference Team after finishing his rookie season tied for fifth nationally among first-year players with 19 goals while tying for 10th among all freshmen with 35 points. He also broke the Division I-era record for goals by a Tiger first-year by five. 

SPREAD THE LOVE
Twenty-three players on the current roster have tallied at least one point this season, while 17 have scored at least one goal.
 
SIMON SAYS DROP THE PUCK
Junior forward Simon Isabelle is currently tied for seventh nationally with 255 faceoff victories and, of the 12 players in the country with at least 230 faceoff wins, ranked first with a .594 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 October loss to Bowling Green. Isabelle won 16-of-24 faceoffs in last Friday's Canisius opener for his 16th double-digit win performance this winter. He also ranks second for the Tigers with seven goals and fifth with 10 points entering this weekend's trip to Robert Morris.
 
SAVINGS ACCOUNT
First-year Jakub Krbecek has made at least 30 saves in 12 of his 13 appearances this season. Credited with a career-high 44 stops in the most recent 2-1 loss at Bowling Green (Dec. 29), he also made 43 saves in the 2-1 OT loss to the Falcons (Oct. 19) during the Brick City Homecoming game at Blue Cross Arena. 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). Current RIT goalie coach Mike Rotolo '17 previously held the mark for the most 30-save games by a RIT first-year in D1-era program history with eight.
 
TRISTAN THE NIGHT AWAY
First-year defenseman Tristan Allen ranks fourth on the squad with 13 points and is third with 11 assists. He scored his first goal in a Tiger sweater and added an assist in the home setback to Canisius (Dec. 3) before logging an assist in both ends of the home doubleheader versus Robert Morris (Dec. 6-7) en route to Atlantic Hockey America Rookie of the Week Honors.
 
BLOCK PARTY
Graduate student defenseman Dimitri Mikrogiannakis is currently tied for 12th nationally with 44 blocked shots. After knocking down a career-high six shots at New Hampshire (Nov. 20), he blocked five shots - including the 200th of his career - the following night against the Wildcats. Mikrogiannakis owns 212 blocks to date.