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Canisius University Athletics

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Hutchison_Nick action vs Sacred Heart 11-5-17
John McCeary
4
Canisius CAN 15-14-2, 15-10-0 AHC
7
Winner Air Force AF 16-13-4, 11-11-3 AHC
Canisius CAN
15-14-2, 15-10-0 AHC
4
Final
7
Air Force AF
16-13-4, 11-11-3 AHC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 F
Canisius CAN 3 0 1 4
Air Force AF 1 3 3 7

Game Recap: Ice Hockey |

Air Force Rallies to Defeat Hockey

Air Force scored six unanswered goals to erase a two-goal deficit and defeat Canisius, 7-4, in Atlantic Hockey Conference action Friday at Cadet Ice Arena at the United States Air Force Academy.
 
Matt Serratore tallied two goals to lead a Falcons (16-13-4, 11-11-3 AHC) attack that out-shot the Golden Griffins (15-14-2, 15-10-0 AHC) by a 47-23 margin for the contest, highlighted by a 33-15 margin over the final two periods.
 
Sophomore Nick Hutchison scored two goals and freshman Grant Meyer and junior Cameron Heath pitched in power-play tallies for the Golden Griffins (15-13-2, 15-9-0 AHC), who were joined by Mercyhurst in first place in the league standings following Friday's action.
 
Trailing 3-1 at the start of the second, Trevor Stone began the Air Force comeback with a power play goal at the 5:16 mark of the middle frame to make it a 3-2 contest.  
 
Serratore tied the game just past the midway point of the period, finishing off a 2-on-1 chance while the Falcons were shorthanded.
 
Boje gave Air Force the lead for good with 2:20 left in the middle period when his slapshot from the top of the point found its through traffic to give the Falcons a 4-3 edge.
 
Jordan Himley and Erik Baskin scored 38 seconds apart early in the third to extended the Air Force cushion to 6-3 before Serratore struck for the second time at the 12:35 mark to give the Falcons their largest lead of the game, 7-3.
 
Hutchison closed out the scoring with an even-strength tally with 2:03 play to determine the final margin.
 
Earlier in the contest, Tyler Ledford staked Air Force to a 1-0 lead just 22 seconds into the contest as he fired home a rebound for his third of the season.
 
Meyer brought Canisius level less than four minutes later, redirecting a goalmouth feed from sophomore Matt Hoover past Falcons goaltender Billy Christopoulos during a power-play opportunity to tie the game at 1-1.
 
Canisius took the lead with a pair of goals during a five-minute power play midway through the opening frame to build a 3-1 cushion.
 
Heath began the sequence at the 8:02 mark of the opening frame when his shot from the top of the point beat Christopoulos for his sixth of the campaign.
 
Hutchison doubled the Canisius margin to 3-1 at the 11:15 mark of the first, banking a shot off Christopoulos and into the net from behind the goal line.
 
Christopoulos stopped 19 shots in goal for Air Force. Urbani and Junior Simon Holfey combined to make 40 saves for Canisius.
 
Head Coach Trevor Large's Postgame Comments
"We were out-competed by Air Force after the first period. They were able to play inside us the whole second period. That got them goals; it also got them power plays, which meant we could not generate anything and they carried that momentum into the third.
 
"We have to put this behind us quickly. There's nothing to fix other than we have to move on and get ready for the same opponent tomorrow. We have to be way better than we were tonight. I have confidence and belief in our guys that tomorrow we'll have a much better effort.
 
"We've been working on our power play all week. They were passing the puck really well; we had a focus to get the puck to the net. We were able to get some power-play goals that were broken plays. (Nick) Hutchison gets one from behind the net to put us up 3-1. That put us in a really good spot. I really liked how we played with the man advantage in the first, but we only had one power play the rest of the game because we got out-competed. But, our power play obviously did some good things in the first."  
 
Game Notes
• Air Force increased its lead in the all-time series to 19-13-9 with Friday's victory.  
• Canisius tallied three power-play goals in a game for the first time since a 6-1 victory over RIT on Jan. 21, 2017.
• Freshman Grant Meyer posted his third multiple-point contest of the season as he finished Friday's contest with a goal and an assist.
• Junior Dylan McLaughlin recorded the 99th point of his career with an assist on Hutchison's first-period tally.
• Sophomore Nick Hutchison tallied his team-leading sixth power-play goal of the season with his man-advantage tally in the first period.
• Hutchison also recorded multiple goals in a game for the fourth time this season with his two-goal effort on Friday.
• Junior Cameron Heath moved into a tie with Paul Graziani (1980-84) for third place on Canisius' chart for career goals scored by a defenseman with his goal in the first period.
 
Up Next
The teams complete their two-game series Saturday with a 5:05 p.m. MST contest at Cadet Ice Arena.  
 
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