Sophomore forward Keaton Mastrodonato scored twice, including the game-winning goal 34 seconds into overtime, to lift Canisius to a 5-4 victory over Mercyhurst in Atlantic Hockey Association action Tuesday at LECOM Harborcenter in downtown Buffalo.
Junior Lee Lapid, freshman Niclas Puikkonen and senior Matt Long also scored for the Golden Griffins (7-2-0, 7-2-0 AHA), who won its fourth straight contest with Tuesday’s overtime triumph.
Noah Kane tallied two goals for the visiting Lakers (7-10-1, 6-7-1 AHA). Jonathan Bendorf and Marko Refenberger also found the back of the net for Mercyhurst.
Mastrodonato’s overtime heroics came after the Lakers scored twice in the third to erase a 4-2 deficit. Kane brought Mercyhurst within one on a power-play goal at the 7:42 mark of the third before Reifenberger forced overtime when he scored on a penalty shot in the final minute of regulation after he was taken down on a shorthanded breakaway.
Canisius remained on the power play to start the overtime session and took advantage as Lapid’s initial shot attempt from the top of the slot was blocked, but the puck found its way over to Mastrodonato in the left faceoff circle, where he collected it and wired a wrist shot between the legs of Lakers netminder Hank Johnson to end the contest.
Earlier in the game, Mercyhurst jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 66 seconds in when Kane deflected a point shot over the left shoulder of Canisius goaltender Matt Ladd.
Lapid brought Canisius level at the 6:28 mark of the opening frame, redirecting a centering feed from freshman Max Kouznetsov past the glove of Johnson.
Puikkonen gave the Griffs a 2-1 lead moments past the midway point of the first, tucking a pass from senior Austin Alger under the crossbar for his first collegiate tally.
Mercyhurst once again struck early as Bendorf scored just 1:15 into the second period with a wrist shot over the glove of Ladd to knot the score at 2-2.
Canisius answered back less than a minute later to retake the lead, with Mastrodonato one-timing a pass from junior Mitchell Martan post Johnson and inside the left post to make it a 3-2 contest.
Long stretched the Griffs advantage to 4-2 at the 15:57 mark of the second, stuffing home his own rebound from in front of the Lakers goal for his third goal of the season, setting the stage for the game’s frantic finish.
Head Coach Trevor Large’s Postgame Comments
“That was a pretty chaotic victory. Anytime you have a 4-2 lead, you want to close out the game. So, I’m happy with the result in terms of an overtime win. It’s a good experience for our team to go through, but the fact that we had a 4-2 lead in the third period, it feels like we have better, we are better. Next time, we hope to get that victory sealed up in regulation. But, quite a few games and not a lot of days off and another win by our team is absolutely a positive. Keaton Mastrodonato and Mitchell Martan were unbelievable tonight. It required a lot to beat a really good Mercyhurst team this evening.
“Our penalty kill was really sharp. It wasn’t our best game in terms of playing together, so we had to handle quite a bit of adversity in the game, to be honest. Mercyhurst was really good on the forecheck. It made it difficult to get pucks out and gain any momentum. So, the positive is that we will absolutely lean on is tonight we were not at our best and we still secured the victory. So, moving forward and as we start to approach playoffs in a couple of weeks, that’s something that we’ll have to lean back on. The great experience is whenever you win an overtime game, it’s so abrupt, so we get to celebrate, you get to go over the boards and have a big celebration. So those are all positives for our team moving forward.
“The simple message from coaches at that moment is go win the game. It’s nothing that we could think back on. Obviously, we felt like we had them. We were on the powerplay and then just a mental mistake from a really good player. Nobody makes mistakes on purpose. And we get one ref wave off a penalty shot and we think we’re fine and another ref calls one and then they score on the penalty shot with under a minute, so that doesn’t happen much in a hockey game. So, if we have to lean back on an experience like that, we have experience with it now. I think that’s good for our team moving forward. But I told them going into overtime, go finish the game.”
Game Notes
• Canisius extended its unbeaten streak against Mercyhurst to seven games with Tuesday’s victory (6-0-1).
• Mercyhurst out-shot Canisius, 37-36, for the game. The Lakers enjoyed a 15-8 advantage in shots during the third period.
• Both teams were 1-for-5 on the power play during Tuesday’s contest.
• Canisius went to overtime for the first time this season. The Griffs moved to 5-5-13 in extra-session games under fourth-year head coach Trevor Large.
• The Griffs improved to 7-1-0 this season when scoring three or more goals in a game with Tuesday’s victory.
• Martan extended his point-scoring streak to eight games with an assist on Mastrodonato’s second-period tally.
• Mastrodonato tallied multiple goals in a game for the third time in his career with his two-goal effort on Tuesday.
• With his two-point effort on Tuesday, Mastrodonato has now recorded 11 points (7g, 4a) in six career games against the Lakers.
• Lapid tallied multiple points in a game for the seventh time in his career with his two-point effort on Tuesday.
• Long and junior J.D. Pogue and both extended their respective point-scoring streaks to four games with a goal and an assist, respectively, on Tuesday.
Up Next
• Canisius travels to Colorado this weekend for a two-game series versus Atlantic Hockey foe Air Force.
• The Griffs and Falcons are slated for a 9:05 p.m. EST puck drop on Feb. 19 and a 7:05 p.m. EST faceoff the following day.
(Canisius Hockey Photo)
