Late heroics help Ice Hockey down No. 19 RIT in overtime

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts - The American International College ice hockey team controlled the pace of play for most of the night, but needed a late extra-attacker goal to force overtime, where the Yellow Jackets ultimately prevailed to win 3-2 over the No. 19 Rochester Institute of Technology in a critical Atlantic Hockey Association matchup on Friday, December 8.

AIC is now 10-6-0 overall and 7-2-0-0-1-0 in the AHA.

RIT opened the scoring fairly early, with Philippe Jacques picking the corner from the left side just 3:31 into the game. However, AIC countered late in the period on the Balise Toyota Power Play. John Lundy was the finisher, with his sixth of the year and fourth on the man advantage, taking a cross pass from Dustin Manz and depositing it into the net at 12:04; Alfred Lindberg earned an assist on the play as well as he started the rush.

In the second, RIT retook the lead despite a 21-7 AIC shot advantage. A strong possession led Aiden Hanen-Bukata to control at the point and his low wrister was redirected up under the crossbar at 11:38 by Tanner Andrew to put the Tigers back in control.

AIC continued to push into the final frame, and it seemed that all their efforts were going to be for nought. However, with Nils Wallstrom on the bench for a sixth attacker, AIC found a way. Jordan Biro dished the puck back to the point for Brian Kramer, who walked to the middle and fired a wrister. It grazed Dustin Manz on the way by, and the slight redirection was enough to fool Tommy Scarfone, as it deflected off of his glove and just over the goal line at 18:40 of the third for Manz' second of the season.

That set up a three-on-three overtime, and both teams had chances, but AIC cashed in. Manz won a defensive zone draw that featured Evan Stella making a strong play along the wall to deflect the puck to Kramer. Kramer worked forward along the left wing, and Stella rushed ahead as well, serving as a passing option. In fact, pass is exactly what Kramer did - only to have a sliding RIT defenseman knock the pass into the net, giving Kramer his ninth goal of the season at 4:12.1 and winning the game for the Yellow Jackets.

Not only was it a crucial goal, but it also set a new record for goals in a season in the Division I era by a defenseman, passing Tim Kolasa '00 and Janis Jaks '20, who had eight in 1999-2000 and 2017-18, respectively.

The two teams will battle again at the MassMutual Center on Saturday, December 9 at 1:05 p.m.