Henrietta, NY - A back-and-forth affair comes to a close in the loss column for Robert Morris University as men's hockey falls to RIT 5-3 on Friday night. The game hinged on momentum swings and the Tigers capitalized on their opportunities in the third period to seal the Colonials fate.

Robert Morris took the first swing with a power play goal by Brady Ferguson at 14:37 of the first. Michael Louria dumped the puck to Timmy Moore who's rebound kicked back to himself before going cross-crease to Ferguson who buried his fifth goal of the season, fourth on the power play. 

RMU took a 1-0 lead into the second period but RIT came out strong. Myles Powell raced in to tie the game 1-1 less than two minutes into the first. Less than five minutes later, Max Mikowski put the Tigers up 2-1.

RMU found the equalizer with eight minutes to play in the second. Moore picked up his second assist of the night moving the puck up to Ferguson who hits Luke Lynch in front of the net for his eighth goal of the season to knot the game at two.

With less than a minute remaining in the second frame, Louria wins a puck battle with RIT and tosses the puck to a rushing Spencer Dorowicz and he put the puck past RIT's Logan Drackett to regain the lead for the Colonials, 3-2, heading into the third.

Robert Morris' penalty killers got to work quickly in the final frame, killing off 1:52 of a 5-on-3, before the Tigers quickly pounced on a 5-on-4 power play goal by Jake Hamacher, tying the game 3-3. Less than two minutes later, Erik Brown scores the go-ahead goal to grab the lead for good for RIT.

The Colonials nearly tied the game when freshman Nick Prkusic skated in on Drackett after a faceoff win, but couldn't quite put the puck home. With Francis Marotte pulled, Alden Dupuis buried an empty-net goal to cap the scoring 5-3 with 36 seconds remaining. Marotte finished the night with 32 saves.

RMU went 1-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.

While RIT outshot RMU 37-22, the Colonials had 51 shot attempts to the Tigers 46.

"We had the momentum going into the third, but we've got to be able to protect a lead. We've won one third period all year and that was the last game against Holy Cross," said head coach Derek Schooley.

"You get a 3-2 lead and you want to extend it and we didn't handle that very well," Schooley continued.

"There are some key momentum swings in a game that you've got to be able to seize and we haven't been able to seize those moments yet."

Robert Morris (3-6-1, 3-4-1 AHC) will face off against RIT again Saturday night at 7:05pm.

Saturday, Nov. 11, 7:05pm, Gene Polisseni Center, Henrietta, NY
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