ALBANY, NY – RIT and New Hampshire pulled off upsets today in the East Regional to face off in the finals on Saturday. RIT won 2-1 over Denver while New Hampshire had a four goal outburst in the third period to defeat Cornell 6-2.
In the early game RIT scored 5:02 thanks to Chris Tanev’s unassisted goal in the first period to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. The Tigers had to hang on the whole game as the Pioneers outshot RIT in every period. The Tigers would make it a 2-0 score thanks to Cameron Burt’s power play goal.
Less than two minutes later Denver got on the board with a power play goal of their own but the Pioneers would get not closer, giving the Tigers their first ever NCAA tournament win.
In Game Two of the night, the Wildcats had six unanswered goals after a slow start to their game but in the end Hobey Baker candidate Bobby Butler beat fellow Hobey candidate Ben Scrivens twice on the night, and also had an empty netter to seal the deal for New Hampshire.
Scrivens was Cornell’s best player in the first period handling a 14-5 onslaught of shots from UNH. The Big Red scored with only 49 seconds left in the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Scrivens was riding a wave of three shutout wins coming into the game, but on this night Butler became the hero. Butler and Mike Salo scored 26 seconds apart late in the second period to change the tide of the game.
Scrivens looked shaky the rest of the night and it showed on the scoreboard. RIT and UNH will now face each other at 6:30 for the right to go to Detroit in the final four at Ford Field.
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
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