Hockey completes sweep with 4-2 victory at RIT

By Army Athletic Communications Date: Monday, Nov 18, 2024 Time: 22:32 EST
Army West Point Hockey (5-6-0, 5-5-0 Atlantic Hockey) earned its first road weekend series sweep in three seasons with a 4-2 victory over RIT (3-9-0, 2-5-0 Atlantic Hockey) on Nov. 16 from the Gene Polisseni Center in Rochester, N.Y. (Photo by Army Athletic Communications)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Army West Point Hockey (5-6-0, 5-5-0 Atlantic Hockey) earned its first road weekend series sweep in three seasons with a 4-2 victory over RIT (3-9-0, 2-5-0 Atlantic Hockey) on Nov. 16 from the Gene Polisseni Center.

Mac Gadowsky logged a pair of goals along with a primary assist on the first collegiate goal from Sam Groebner in the second period, which propelled the Black Knights. Gadowsky also had a plus-four rating in the contest as Michael Sacco logged a pair of assists.

JJ Cataldo continued his historic start in goal for the Black Knights, making 32 saves. Cataldo has now allowed just eight goals through his first six career starts.

Army had a key five-minute penalty kill with a one-goal lead at the beginning of the third period with Nik Hong scoring a shorthanded goal in the final 30 seconds of the spell, which gave the Black Knights a two-goal lead.

The Tigers scored the lone goal of the first period despite being outshot 15-9 by the Black Knights. Tyler Fukakusa netted the game's opener at the 13:39 mark of the frame.

Army found its offense in the second period with three total goals, beginning with Gadowsky who fired home a feed from Barron Woodring that knotted the game at one. Less than two minutes later, Gadowsky found a cutting Sam Groebner who finished off his first Army goal to give the Black Knights a quick 2-1 lead.

RIT got a power-play later in the period and converted through Matthew Wilde to tie the game with 2:11 left in the second.

Less than a minute later, Gadowsky quickly notched his third goal of the series and third point of the period as Michael Sacco laid off a perfect pass to execute a two-on-one. Army took a penalty in the final minute of the frame but led 3-2 through two.

Army killed over four minutes of the man-disadvantage begin the third, setting the tone needed to eventually secure the sweep. With a faceoff in the RIT defensive zone in the closing seconds of the power-play, Hong won the faceoff to Ben Ivey who fed it back to Hong who finished off his fourth goal of the season and Army's fourth of the game.

RIT had chances on the power-play in the third to cut it to a one-goal lead, but Cataldo stood tall throughout the final 20 minutes with 10 saves in the period. Gadowsky narrowly had his hat trick on an empty net, but the goal was disallowed due to an offsides.

The Black Knights narrowly outshot the home side, 35-34, while RIT won 45 of 68 faceoffs for the game.

Army's sweep marked its first on the road since February 2022 at Holy Cross, as the Black Knights also recorded a sweep in Rochester earlier that season.