GMU traveled to Rochester Institute of Technology this past weekend for back-to-back games. Saturday’s game ended with a Mason overtime victory of 4-3. GMU played hard but unfortunately Sunday’s game, after going to a shootout, ended with a loss of 5-4.  

With two players, Raymond Booth (senior) and Dmitry Ignatov (freshman), serving DQ’s from last weekend's game against IUP as well as Will Magrath (junior) sitting out with an injury, GMU started off with a disadvantage. The first period of Saturday’s game saw RIT score first, early in the period.  GMU tied the score back up in the first minute of the second period. Mike Miranda (sophomore) made a strong move to the net that was jammed in by Matt Price (senior). RIT scored again, 7 minutes into the second, gaining the lead once again. With one minute left, Joe Petite (senior) feeds the puck backdoor to Nick Willey (senior) to end the period tied 2-2.  

8:37 into the third period James Sharp (sophomore) scores his first career goal. Assisted by Ryder Clarke (sophomore), Sharp shoots high glove giving GMU the lead. RIT tied the score a few minutes after, bringing the game into overtime. In OT, the team capitalized early on a turnover. Matt Price (senior) on a breakaway, moved the puck to his backhand and managed to slide it 5-hole for the OT win. Lukas Heuberger (freshman) played steady in net throughout and picked up the win saving 31 of 34 shots. 

On Sunday, the team had a slow start. GMU trailed 0-1 after the first period of play. After 10 minutes of play in the second period, RIT scored two more goals bringing the score to 0-3. Raymond Booth (senior) is first to get the team on the scoreboard with assists from Kael Dillon (sophomore) and Drew Tsakounis (freshman). RIT pocketed another point with their fourth goal in the last 3 minutes of the period. Following that up, Drew Tsakounis passes the puck from the point to Mike Miranda in front of the net. Miranda tosses it across to Kael Dillon who shoots from the left side and makes it in top right.  

GMU worked to tie the score in the third with crucial goals by Dimitry Ignatov (Dillon, Chapman) and Joe Petite (Price) while holding RIT off the scoreboard. The teams once again are tied at the end of the third and go into overtime. GMU was within an ace of scoring an OT goal from the stick of Ray Booth, but it was unfortunately waived off as the RIT net had been moved off. GMU allowed 4 shots against in the OT period, but Tanner Rusnak was able to save all of them. In the shootout we fell short as RIT scored both their chances and we failed to beat RIT’s goalie who had made a number of high-quality saves throughout the game for them. Tanner Rusnak was in net for this game and stopped 26 of 30 shots but unfortunately got beaten twice in the shootout with moves to the glove side resulting in the OT shootout loss. 

GMU is on the road again this weekend. October 13th @ 8:30 the team will face off against RMU at Island Sports Center. On the 14th, we will travel to Morgantown Ice Arena to play WVU @ 4. Be sure to follow the GMU Ice Hockey on Twitter for live updates on the games.