Division I Championship Game: Buffalo vs Rhode Island
Rhode Island Upsets Rutgers 4-2
ECRHA February 22nd, 2009 at 3:11PM February 22nd, 2009 4:21PM
Feasterville, PA - Eric Rieger deflected a innocent shot off his shaft with just under 6 minutes remaining in the third period to lead Rhode Island past regular season champion, Rutgers University. Rhode Island advances to the first championship game in school history and will have another top seeded team standing in the way after Buffalo beat Towson 8-2.
Rutgers jumped out to the early 1-0 when James Kinosian scored a power play tally midway through the first period. The lead held until the closing minutes of the second period when Justin Lundh and Brett Borbidge scored just 1:15 apart to give Rhode Island a 2-1 lead. Rutgers answered with the second Kinosian tally just twenty second later to set up the exciting finish.
After Rieger gave Rhode Island the lead, Rutgers pressured hard but couldn't quite come up with the game tying tally when disaster struck. Justin Lundh found the back of the net with thirty seconds remaining in the game to punch URI's ticket into the Championship game.