The Canisius College hockey team lost its season opener on Saturday night, falling to Penn State in front of 1,711 fans at HARBORCENTER, 6-1. Nine freshmen made their collegiate debuts for the Griffs in the defeat.
“Our learning curve right now is extremely steep,” said Canisius head coach Dave Smith. “There hasn’t been a period we haven’t improved as a team. Penn State earned that victory tonight but our effort and attitude was there. We will keep getting better and improve from this.”
Senior Ralph Cuddemi (Concord, Ontario) scored the lone Griffs goal on the night.
Sophomore netminder Reilly Turner (Temiscaming, Quebec) stopped a career-best 39 shots in the loss.
Penn State took control of the game in the first two minutes with a pair of tallies to never look back. Both goals came off Canisius giveaways in its own zone, leading to goals by Curtis Loik 1:33 into the game and by Ricky DeRosa just 27 seconds later.
The Nittany Lions added a third tally in the first period when Chase Berger scored with 7:01 remaining, connecting on a rush.
In the second frame, Penn State scored twice on a five-minute major to stretch its advantage. David Glen finished high with a two-man advantage at the 9:00 mark of the period before David Goodwin added another tally at the 10:33 mark.
The Canisius offense threatened throughout the night and finally converted a chance with 9:40 remaining in the contest. On the power play, junior Shane Conacher (Burlington, Ontario) found Cuddemi on the back door and the senior captain knocked the puck in for the first Canisius goal of the season. Freshman Dylan McLaughlin (Lancaster, N.Y.) added his first collegiate point with the second assist on the power-play tally.
Penn State rounded out the scoring, taking advantage of another Canisius miscue in its defensive zone with just 0.5 seconds remaining in the game. After knocking the puck free from Turner, Goodwin scored for the 6-1 final score.
Penn State finished the game with a 45-28 advantage in shots on the night. The Nittany Lions also converted 2-of-3 power-play chances, while the Griffs went 1-for-3 with the extra-man advantage.
Canisius continues its four-game homestand to open the 2015-16 campaign with a non-conference tilt against No. 16 Bowling Green on Friday. Game time at HARBORCENTER is set for 7:35 p.m.
Game Notes: The schools were meeting for the first time … Canisius is now 0-7-1 all-time against teams in the Big Ten … Cuddemi is now tied with Michael Cohen for seventh in the program’s history with 42 career goals … The senior captain also raised his career power-play goal total to 17 – he entered the weekend tied for third nationally among active players with 16 extra-man tallies … Turner’s previous career-best was 36 saves against Maine last season … Canisius set a school record with a 2.24 scoring defense last season and did not give up more than four goals in a game.
