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Canisius University Athletics

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Grant Meyer action vs SHU 11-4-17
John McCeary
1
AIC AIC 9-13-2, 8-9-2 AHC
6
Winner Canisius CAN 11-9-2, 11-5-0 AHC
AIC AIC
9-13-2, 8-9-2 AHC
1
Final
6
Canisius CAN
11-9-2, 11-5-0 AHC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 F
AIC AIC 0 0 1 1
Canisius CAN 3 0 3 6

Game Recap: Ice Hockey |

Hockey Cruises to 6-1 victory over AIC

Three players tallied two goals apiece to lead Canisius to a 6-1 victory over American International in Atlantic Hockey Conference action Saturday at KeyBank Rink at HARBORCENTER.
 
Junior Cameron Heath, sophomore Nick Hutchison and freshman Grant Meyer all found the back of the net twice for the Golden Griffins (11-9-2, 11-5-0 AHC), who maintained a share of first place in the league standings with the victory. Johno May accounted for the lone goal for the Yellow Jackets (9-13-2, 8-9-2 AHC).
 
Meyer staked Canisius to a 1-0 lead less than a minute into the contest as he jammed home a rebound on a shot from junior Joshua Gabriel for his third of the campaign.
 
Hutchison doubled the Griffs' advantage to 2-0 just before the midway point of the opening period, one-timing a feed from junior Jimmy Mazza past the glove of Yellow Jackets goaltender Stefano Durante from the right faceoff circle.
 
Heath stretched the Canisius margin to 3-0 at the 18:19 mark of the first, depositing a loose puck into the back of the net.
 
After a scoreless second, AIC cut the Canisius margin to 3-1 just 1:59 into the third when May recorded his second goal of the series on a redirection.
 
Heath restored Canisius' three-goal margin less than three minutes later, beating Durante from the middle of the slot on a feed from senior Ryan Schmelzer.
 
Meyer added an empty net tally at the 13:37 mark of the third to increase the Griffs' lead to 5-1 before Hutchison closed out the scoring with 2:46 remaining to determine the final margin.
 
Sophomore Daniel Urbani stopped 28 shots between the pipes for Canisius. Durante finished with 27 saves for AIC.
 
Head Coach Trevor Large's Postgame Comments
"It was a great win. It was nice for our guys to score a lot tonight. That always feels good when your team is able to get that many goals. We really wanted to establish where we wanted to play tonight. We were able to do that consistently with our shifts. That gave us some really good momentum. Being able to establish that we wanted to play in their end and establishing who we are with high compete from the opening faceoff were important to us tonight and thankfully, we were able to do both those things.
 
"It's always important on night two, no matter whether you won or lost on Friday, that you establish energy into your game. For us to come out with a great start and get an early goal, that really started the momentum of the game in our favor. It was really important for our team and the guys did a great job of doing that.
 
Game Notes
• Canisius moved to 37-16-7 all-time against AIC and improved to 7-1-4 in its last 12 home games against the Yellow Jackets with Saturday's victory.  
• Canisius tallied four or more goals in a game for the ninth time this season and improved to 8-0-1 this season when doing so.
• The Griffs improved to 28-2-0 since the start of the 2016-17 season and 9-0-1 in 2017-18 when scoring the first goal of the contest.
• Canisius moved to 6-0-0 this season when leading after 40 minutes.
• Junior Cameron Heath recorded multiple goals in a game for the second time in his career with his two-goal effort on Saturday (Dec. 30, 2016 at Holy Cross).
• Sophomore Nick Hutchison scored two goals in a game for the third time this season and second time in four contests.
• Hutchison also recorded his fifth game-winning goal of the season on Saturday, becoming the first player in the Division I ranks with five game-winning goals in 2017-18.
• Freshman Grant Meyer finished Saturday's contest with a career-high three points as he notched two goals and added an assist.
• Senior Ryan Schmelzer picked up his 99th career point with an assist on Saturday. The assist was also the 62nd of his career, moving him into a tie with former teammate Ralph Cuddemi (2013-16) for ninth place on the program's Division I chart for assists.
• Junior Joshua Gabriel recorded his first point of the season with an assist on Meyer's first-period tally.
• Junior Jimmy Mazza tallied multiple points in a game for the fourth time this season and the ninth time in his career as he finished with two assists.
• Junior Dylan McLaughlin recorded his team-leading 30th point of the season with his assist on Heath's first-period goal. He is the first player in Atlantic Hockey to reach the 30-point plateau this season.
 
Up Next
• Canisius begins a four-game road swing next weekend as it travels to RIT for an AHC series versus the Tigers Jan. 19-20.
• Puck drop for both contests at the Gene Polisseni Center are set for 7 p.m. 
 
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