Kalamazoo, Mich. – The Canisius College hockey team fell to nationally-ranked Western Michigan on Friday night, losing to the No. 12 Broncos, 3-0. The loss drops the Griffs to 1-2-0 on the season, while Western Michigan improves to 2-1-0.
“A couple of inches here and there and it is a completely different story,” said Canisius head coachDave Smith. “We hit a post, hit a crossbar and had a goal disallowed. We gave ourselves a chance to be in the game tonight because we were better later in the game and I’m excited to see if we can carry that over into tomorrow.”
Junior Tony Capobianco (Mississauga, Ontario) led the Griffs with 38 saves on the night.
After a scoreless first period, the Broncos finally broke through halfway through the second frame. Western Michigan skated in on a 2-on-1 break and Josh Pitt got past the Canisius defense and finished for the 1-0 lead with 10:45 remaining in the period.
Western Michigan added a second tally nearly five minutes later when Jordan Osterie’s shot from the point snuck through for a 2-0 advantage.
The Griffs attempted a comeback in the third but despite good pressure, couldn’t get on the scoreboard. In the first five minutes of the frame, the Western Michigan goaltender made a nice save on freshman Stephen Miller (Boxborough, Mass.), junior Kyle Gibbons (Westlake, Ohio) had his shot ring off the pipe and sophomore Mitch McCrank (Haileybury, Ontario) had his goal off a rebound from another shot that hit the post disallowed after a lengthy review.
The Broncos then sealed the victory with a power-play tally with 8:26 remaining in the contest with Mike Cichy scoring on a rebound for the 3-0 final score.
Western Michigan finished the contest with a 41-21 advantage in shots. The Broncos converted 1-of-8 power-play chances, while the Griffs did not convert in three opportunities.
Frank Slubowski recorded 21 saves for the Broncos to earn the shutout victory.
The teams wrap up the two-game series tomorrow night with game time set for 7:05 p.m.
Game Notes: The Griffs drop to 3-19-2 all-time against nationally-ranked schools and 4-18-4 versus CCHA teams … Canisius was shutout for the second time in three games this season and for the eighth time in the last two years … The Broncos now own a 4-1-0 all-time advantage against Canisius … It marked the first time in the series that a school failed to score two goals in a contest.
