Canisius rattled off five unanswered goals to erase a two-goal deficit and cruise to a 6-3 victory over Clarkson in collegiate ice hockey action Saturday at KeyBank Rink at Harborcenter.
Senior Dylan McLaughlin tallied two goals and an assist while fellow senior Cameron Heath pitched a one goal and a personal-best three assists to pace the Golden Griffins (4-4-0), who recorded four of its six goals while on the power play. Junior Nick Hutchison, sophomore Austin Alger and freshman Lee Lapid also scored for Canisius.
Jordan Schneider, Nico Sturm and Greg Moro accounted for the three tallies from the Golden Knights (4-4-0).
Clarkson tallied two goals exactly a minute apart early in the first period to jump out to a quick 2-0 lead.
Schneider opened the scoring at the 6:50 mark of the frame, beating Canisius netminder Tucker Weppner with a snap shot glove side for his first of the campaign before Sturm struck on the following shift, rushing into the Griffs zone before sliding a backhand between Weppner’s legs to make it 2-0.
Canisius got on the board less than a minute after Sturm’s tally when McLaughlin beat Clarkson keeper Jake Kielly with a wrist shot from the left sidewall to trim the deficit in half, 2-1.
Heath brought the Griffs level at the 11:41 mark of the opening frame with a power-play tally, putting home a far side rebound after Kielly turned aside Hutchison’s deflection attempt from just in front of the Golden Knights cage.
Lapid gave Canisius the lead just 62 seconds into the middle frame, jamming home a loose puck while the Griffs were on the power play to make it a 3-2 contest.
Alger doubled the Canisius cushion 80 seconds after Lapid’s go-ahead goal, beating Kielly with a wrist shot from the middle of the slot for his first goal with the Griffs.
Hutchison increased the Canisius advantage to 5-2 with a power-play marker just past the midway point of the contest, sliding the puck under Kielly from close range for his fourth of the season.
Moro trimmed the Clarkson deficit to 5-3 with a little more than two minutes to play in the second when his shot from the point was stopped by Weppner, but the rebound deflected off a Canisius player and into the net.
McLaughlin closed out the scoring at the 6:46 mark of the third, putting home a back-door feed from Mazza while the Griffs were on the power play for his second of the contest.
Weppner recorded 30 saves in goal for Canisius before being replaced by sophomore Jake Zurat for the final 69 seconds of the contest. Zurat stopped all three shots he faced.
Head Coach Trevor Large’s Postgame Comments
“It was an all-hands-on-deck win tonight. We’ve been working hard this week to get some details into our game and some structure. We knew that is was going to require a big effort for us to get the win tonight. I’m very happy with how we played.
“We gave up a couple of early goals and then Dylan scores a big goal and then we were able to build some momentum from there. We were able to respond and then we just kept pushing and building momentum and all of a sudden we got up in the game pretty quick.”
Game Notes
• Saturday’s game served as the eighth meeting between Canisius and Clarkson. The win by the Griffs snapped a six-game unbeaten streak for the Golden Knights in the series (3-0-3).
• The victory was Canisius’ first over and ECAC Hockey opponent since a 7-6 overtime victory against Colgate on Dec. 20, 2009.
• The four power-play goals for the Griffs were a season high and the most in a game since tallying five man-advantage markers in a 6-3 triumph against Robert Morris on Oct. 21, 2016.
• Clarkson was 0-for-4 on the power play as Canisius has now successfully killed off each of its last 19 shorthanded situations.
• Heath established career highs in both assists (3) and points (4) on Saturday. His previous career high in both categories was two.
• McLaughlin recorded multiple points in a game for the fourth time this season with his three-point effort on Saturday. The Griffs improved to 27-5-1 when he tallies two or more points in a game.
• The three points increased McLaughlin’s career point total to 120, moving into sole possession of sixth place on the program’s Division I era chart.
• Hutchison’s second-period goal was his third power-play tally of the season and the 17th of his career.
Up Next
• Canisius travels to Rochester Tuesday for a single contest against RIT. The game is the first half of an Atlantic Hockey series that will see the Griffs travel back to Rochester for the finale on March 2.
• Puck drop for the midweek contest between the Griffs and the Tigers is set for 7 p.m. at the Gene Polisseni Center.
