By Warren Kozireski (WNY Hockey and NY Hockey OnLine) —
For the sixth time in the past nine years, Canisius has advanced to their conference’s final four with a convincing 6-2 victory over third-seed RIT and a sweep of their best-of-three series.The Golden Griffins followed their season-long pattern of falling behind early (outscored this season by eight goals in the first and outscoring their opponents by 19 goals the rest of the game) though they did jump out to a 1-0 lead on a Max Kouznetsov tally off a great feed from senior captain Grant Meyer at 2:51 of the first period.
“I really didn’t see anything,” Meyer said about his pass. “It was more instinct and kind of a blind pass. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
The Tigers tallied two goals on the power play later in the first as seniors Jake Hamacher and Dan Willett scored at 10:46 and 14:51 respectively for a 2-1 advantage.
“I don’t what it has been—the first five or ten minutes have been rough this year, but we have a saying of being in the present,” Meyer said. “We just need to figure out how to have a better first five minutes next game.”
But it was all Canisius the rest of the game with two goals in the second period to take the lead and three more in the third—two on an empty-net.First-Team All-Conference West Pod forward Keaton Mastrodonato tied the game 2-2 just as a Golden Griffins penalty expired as he raced down the right wing and beat the RIT goaltender high glove side at 3:39 of the second.Senior captain Grant Meyer then netted a power play marker with assists from Lee Lapid and Mastrodonato at 14:09 to put the Griffs up 3-2 after two periods.
The back-breaker came shorthanded with 4:49 remaining as Simon Gravel fed Lapid to give the Griffs a two-goal cushion prior to empty-net tallies by Mitchell Martan and Ryan Miotto.Sophomore goaltender Jacob Barcewski made 29 saves in net.
“Defense did a really nice job in the first period especially blocking shots and clearing the rebound,” Barcewski said.
Canisius awaits the results of other semi-final series before finding out their opponent in the semi-finals. The lower seed in the West plays the higher seed in the East (AIC) and vice-versa next weekend in single elimination.
