Canisius scored twice in a 1:46 span midway through the third period to break a 1-1 tie and defeat Army West Point, 3-2, in Atlantic Hockey Conference action Saturday at Tate Rink.
Sophomore Matt Hoover and senior Ryan Schmelzer scored during the game-changing stretch in the third while senior Mike Sabatini opened the scoring in the first to propel the Golden Griffins (8-4-1, 8-4-0 AHC) to their fifth straight victory.
Zach Evancho and Trevor Fidler tallied the two Black Knights (6-7-2, 6-7-2 AHC) goals.
Hoover broke the 1-1 tie at the 10:10 mark of the third period, collecting a pass from sophomore Jesse Pereira on the rush and chipping it past Army West Point goaltender Cole Bruns to give the Griffs a 2-1 lead.
Schmelzer tallied what proved to be the game-winning goal less than two minutes later, finishing off a tic-tac-toe passing sequence during a power-play opportunity to double the Canisius cushion to 3-1.
Fidler made things interesting in the final minute of regulation, banging home his own rebound at the 19:37 mark of the third to make it a 3-2 contest. That would be as close as the Black Knights would get, however, as the Griffs held on for the one-goal triumph.
Earlier in the contest, Sabatini opened the scoring at the 18:36 mark of the first period, placing a wrist shot past the blocker of Bruns for his third of the campaign.
Evancho tied the game at 1-1 with a power-play goal early in the second period, beating Canisius netminder Daniel Urbani with a slap shot from the top of the right point.
Urbani made 27 saves for Canisius while Bruns stopped 29 shots for the Black Knights.
Head Coach Trevor Large Postgame Comments
“It was definitely an effort game where we needed everybody of every minute they were on the ice to get the win. Army West Point is a good team. It was a great battle; another good college hockey game that required a huge effort from us to be successful.
“The trend I’ve seen with our guys, and we actually talked about it during the first intermission, is that we get better as games go on. Our guys understand that we need to continue to push, we need to be the aggressor in the game and it feels like we’re one of those teams that as the game continues, we get stronger. We’re able to withstand a push from the opposing team and then when we get a chance to push back, our guys how to do that and we can make teams pay with our skill.
“Everyone around our program knows that Daniel Urbani is a good goalie and that he’s got high compete. He’s battling hard to see pucks and he’s the type of goalie that when he sees it, he’s going to stop it. He has that skill and ability. It was a solid effort from him tonight. We feel like if we can keep teams to two goals and under that we have some firepower up front that we’re typically going to win those games.”
Game Notes
Canisius increased its lead in the Division I era of the series to 23-20-6 and improved to 6-4-0 in its last 10 games against Army West Point at Tate Rink.
The Griffs improved to 7-0-1 this season and 25-2-0 since the start of the 2016-17 season when scoring the first goal of the contest.
Canisius is now 4-2 in one-goal games this season with its 3-2 victory on Saturday.
The Griffs recorded at least one power-play goal for the 11th time in 13 games as they were 1-for-3 with the man advantage on Saturday.
Junior Dylan McLaughlin extended his point-scoring streak to a career-best nine games with an assist on Saturday. He has recorded 14 points (6g, 8a) in that span.
Senior Ryan Schmelzer recorded his third game-winning goal of the season and the 11th of his career on Saturday, one shy of matching Cory Conacher ’11 for first place on the program’s career game-winning goals list.
Up Next
Canisius returns to action Dec. 2 when it hosts No. 5 Clarkson in a 7:35 p.m. contest at KeyBank Rink at HARBORCENTER.
