Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Canisius University Athletics

#Griffs The Official Home of the Canisius University Golden Griffins | #Griffs
McLaughlin_Dylan action vs Army 2-10-18
www.tomwolf.smugmug.com
2
Canisius CAN 15-15-2, 15-11-0 AHC
3
Winner Air Force AF 17-13-4, 12-11-3 AHC
Canisius CAN
15-15-2, 15-11-0 AHC
2
Final
3
Air Force AF
17-13-4, 12-11-3 AHC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 F
Canisius CAN 0 1 1 2
Air Force AF 0 3 0 3

Game Recap: Ice Hockey |

Falcons Hold on to Beat Hockey, 3-2

Air Force scored three goals in an 8:39 span during the second period to erase a one-goal deficit and defeat Canisius, 3-2, in Atlantic Hockey Conference action Saturday at Cadet Ice Arena at the United States Air Force Academy.
 
Jordan Himley, Brady Tomlak and Ben Kucera all scored during the game-changing stretch to power the Falcons (17-13-4, 12-11-3 AHC) to the one-goal victory and a series sweep.
 
Junior Dylan McLaughlin tallied a goal and an assist and sophomore Nick Hutchison notched his team-leading 16th goal of the season for the Golden Griffins (15-15-2, 15-11-0 AHC), who moved into second place in the league standings after Mercyhurst took over the top spot with an overtime victory against Robert Morris.
 
After a scoreless first period, McLaughlin got Canisius on the board at the 5:56 mark of the second when he placed a wrist shot past Air Force goaltender Billy Christopoulos from the left faceoff circle.
 
Himley brought the Falcons level exactly one minute later, intercepting a breakout pass before beating Canisius netminder Daniel Urbani with a shot inside the right post to tie the game at 1-1.
 
Tomlak gave Air Force its first lead of the contest with a power-play strike a little more than five minutes after Himley's tally, jamming home a rebound from just off the right post for his fifth of the campaign.
 
Kucera capped the Falcons second-period barrage with 4:25 remaining in the middle frame, placing a snap shot in the upper right-hand corner of the net to make it a 3-1 contest.
 
Hutchison pulled Canisius within one a little more than six minutes into the third period, redirecting a centering feed from McLaughlin just under the crossbar to trim the Griffs deficit to 3-2.
 
That would be as close as Canisius would get, however, as the Falcons held the Griffs off the board the rest of the way to earn the one-goal victory.
 
Christopoulos made 24 saves in goal for Air Force. Urbani turned aside 38 shots between the pipes for Canisius.
 
Head Coach Trevor Large's Postgame Comments
"That was a hard-fought battle tonight; it was a game had a playoff-level intensity to it.
For us, the learning experience is that moving forward, the games are going to be similar to tonight from now until the end of the season. The result was not what we wanted, but we can learn from this experience and know what it's going to take to win games at this time of year.
"It was a bit of desperation for us in the third. Our guys have a lot of belief. I've said it all year. We have really good leadership. There's a lot of belief and a lot of confidence in the room. There really was not much of a change other than I felt that we competed for everything in that third period and we have to do that from now on.
 
"We need to keep the hunger that we showed in the third period as we prepare for Niagara next weekend. We'll definitely have that after this weekend. Anytime you play your rival, it brings out the best in everybody. I'm excited to see how hungry our guys are to compete and how great we can be against our school rival."
 
Game Notes
• Air Force increased its lead in the all-time series to 20-13-9 with Saturday's victory.
• Canisius suffered its first loss of the season when recording the first goal of the contest, moving to 13-1-1 in 2017-18 when getting on the board first.
• The Griffs were swept in an Atlantic Hockey series for the first time in more than a year as they suffered consecutive defeats to the same league opponent for the first time since Nov. 11-12, 2016 at Army West Point.
• Canisius saw its record in one-goal games move to 6-5 during the 2017-18 season with Saturday's setback.
• Junior Dylan McLaughlin became just the 12th player in the Division I era of the program to reach the 100-point plateau for his career with his second-period tally. He is also just the third player since the 1997-98 campaign to reach the milestone during his junior campaign.
• With his two-point effort, McLaughlin increased his season point total to 42, moving him into a tie with Cory Conacher (2010-11) and Ralph Cuddemi (2015-16) for fifth place on the program's single-season points chart during the Division I era.
• Sophomore Daniel Urbani posted a new season high for saves as he made 38 stops on Saturday.
• Freshman Logan Gestro picked up his first career assist with the primary helper on McLaughlin's second-period goal.
 
Up Next
• Canisius closes out the regular season with a home-and-home series against longtime rival Niagara Feb. 23-24.
• The Griffs host the series opener at KeyBank Rink at HARBORCENTER in a 7:35 p.m. puck drop on Feb. 23 before the two teams play the series finale the following night in a 7 p.m. matchup at Dwyer Arena.  
• Canisius will honor its senior class in a ceremony prior to the start of Friday's contest. 
 
 
Print Friendly Version