Canisius exploded for five goals in the first period to cruise to an 8-2 victory over No. 20 Niagara In Atlantic Hockey Conference action Saturday at KeyBank Rink at HARBORCENTER.
Junior Dylan McLaughlin tallied two goals and added an assist while sophomores Casey Jerry and Nick Hutchison chipped in a goal and an assist each to power a potent Golden Griffins (10-5-1, 10-4-0 AHC) attack that recorded its 10th straight victory against the Purple Eagles (9-7-1, 8-4-1 AHC) and extended its lead in the AHC standings to three points.
Freshman Grant Meyer staked Canisius to a 1-0 lead just 1:09 into the contest when he beat Niagara goaltender Brian Wilson with a wrist shot from the top of the left faceoff circle.
Jerry doubled the Griffs margin to 2-0 at the midway point of the opening frame with his first of the campaign before McLaughlin netted the eventual game-winning goal a little more than four minutes later with a power-play tally.
Senior Mike Sabatini picked up his fourth of the season just 74 seconds later to extend the Canisius margin to 4-0 before McLaughlin capped the first-period barrage with his second of the period at the 17:09 mark.
Sam Rennaker got Niagara on the board a little more than seven minutes into the second period to make it a 5-1 game, only to see senior Ryan Schmelzer restore Canisius’ five-goal cushion just nine seconds later with his ninth of the season.
Derian Plouffe once again trimmed the Purple Eagles deficit to four near the midway point of the middle frame, but the Griffs once again had an answer as Hutchison picked up his second goal in as many contests on the ensuing shift to make it a 7-2 contest.
Sophomore Jesse Pereira closed out the scoring with his fourth of the campaign late the second period.
Sophomore Daniel Urbani recorded 31 saves in goal for Canisius.
Head Coach Trevor Large’s Postgame Comments
“It was obviously a great game for us tonight. Our overall effort was there from the opening faceoff. We had lots of offense tonight. It was a great game. We played very well.
“I don’t know if game-to-game momentum exists, but the players heard the message that we wanted to dominate from the opening puck drop. It takes a lot of energy to be ready to do that. Tonight, we did a very good job of dominating from the opening faceoff until the final minutes of the third. The effort was there.”
Game Notes
The eight goals scored by Canisius on Saturday were the most in the 48-game history of the series versus Niagara. The six-goal margin of victory was also the largest by either team in series history.
The eight goals were the most in a game for Canisius since an 8-2 victory at Army West Point on Dec. 6, 2013.
Canisius improved to 3-2 this season against nationally-ranked competition with Saturday’s victory over No. 20 ranked Niagara.
The crowd of 1,814 was the third largest to attend a Canisius hockey game at HARBORCENTER.
Canisius improved to 26-2-0 since the start of the 2016-17 season and 8-0-1 in 2017-18 when scoring the first goal of the contest.
Junior Dylan McLaughlin extended his point-scoring streak to 11 games with his three-point performance on Saturday as he tallied two or more points in a game for the eighth time this season.
Sophomore Nick Hutchison posted multiple points in a game for the fourth time this season with his two-point effort on Saturday.
Senior Ryan Schmelzer recorded the 96th point of his career on Saturday, moving him just four points away from becoming just the 11th player in the Division I era of the program to reach the 100-point plateau.
Sophomore Casey Jerry posted multiple points in a game for the first time in his career with his two-point effort on Saturday.
Junior defensemen Ian Edmondson and Cameron Heath both matched their career highs with two assists each on Saturday.
Up Next
Canisius will take its traditional end-of-semester break before returning to action Dec. 30 with a non-conference contest at No. 6 Cornell.
