RIT upsets Denver 2-1 in NCAA hockey
March 26, 2010
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)—Cameron Burt scored a power-play goal with 7:24 left in thethird period and Rochester Institute won its first NCAA Division I tournamentgame, upsetting top-seeded Denver 2-1 in the East Regional semifinals Friday.
The Tigers (27-11-1) will play either Cornell or New Hampshire on Saturdayfor a berth in the Frozen Four.
Freshman defenseman Chris Tanev also scored for RIT, and senior goaltenderJared DeMichiel stopped 39 shots as the Tigers extended their win streak to 11games, longest in the country this season.
Joe Colborne had the goal for Denver (27-10-4), the top seed in the Eastwhich ended the season with three consecutive losses.
RIT, the Atlantic Hockey Association champion, is in its fifth season as aD-I program.
Tanev scored 5:04 in, jumping on a loose puck in the right circle andsnapping a wrist shot to the upper left corner of the net past screened Pioneersgoalie Marc Cheverie.
The score stayed that way into the third period, largely thanks to severalacrobatic saves from DeMichiel, the best coming midway through the third fromthe seat of his pants on Denver’s Kyle Ostrow.
Skating on its second power play of the game, RIT took a two-goal lead.Andrew Favot held the puck in the left circle, then slid a perfect cross-icepass to Burt at the right post, where he slipped the puck under Cheverie’soutstretched left pad.
Cheverie, a seventh-round pick of the Florida Panthers in 2006, finishedwith 23 saves for Denver.
Denver used its power play to cut the lead in half 1:58 later. DeMichielmade an initial stop on Tyler Ruegsegger’s wrist shot, but Colborne, a 6-foot-5first-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins in 2008, outreached RIT defenders tochop in the rebound with 5:26 to play.
RIT made 13 trips to the NCAA tournament at the Division II and III levelsbetween 1983 and 2002, winning national titles in 1983 as a Division II team and1985 in Division III. Its last NCAA tournament appearance came in 2001-02.
