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Canisius University Athletics

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Canisius' Mitchell Martan positions himself in front of the Robert Morris during game action at LECOM Harborcenter on Feb. 22, 2020
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4
Canisius CAN 1-1-0
5
Winner Robert Morris RMU 3-1-0
Canisius CAN
1-1-0
4
Final
5
Robert Morris RMU
3-1-0
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 F
Canisius CAN 0 2 2 4
Robert Morris RMU 2 1 2 5

Game Recap: Ice Hockey |

Late Goal Dooms Hockey in Finale at Robert Morris

Randy Hernandez scored the game-winning goal with 1:31 remaining in the third period to lift Robert Morris to a 5-4 victory over Canisius in Atlantic Hockey Association action Saturday at Clearview Arena in Moon Township, Pa.
 
Justin Addamo tallied two goals and Grant Herbert finished with a goal and two assists to pace the host Colonials (3-1-0, 1-1-0-0 AHA), who avenged Friday's loss in the series opener to earn a split of the league series.
 
Freshman Jami Virtanen, junior Mitchell Martan, sophomore Simon Gravel and senior Grant Meyer scored for the Golden Griffins (1-1-0, 1-1-0-0 AHA).
 
Tied at 4-4 in the final minutes of regulation, Hernandez put the Colonials ahead for good as he beat a Canisius defender to the back post and tapped in a cross-ice feed from Santeri Hartikainen give RMU its third and final lead of the game.
 
Hernandez's heroics spoiled a valiant effort from the Griffs that saw them tie the game twice in the third.
 
Trailing 3-2 at the start of the third, Gravel brought Canisius level less than three minutes into the frame when he converted on a shorthanded breakaway opportunity for his first of the campaign.
 
Addamo put the Colonials back in front near the midway point of the final stanza with his second of the contest, working his way into the middle of the slot before placing a backhanded effort past Griffs' sophomore goaltender Jacob Barczewski to make it a 4-3 contest.
 
Meyer responded for the Griffs a little less than five minutes later, putting home a rebound from in front of the Colonials cage to knot the score at 4-4, setting the stage for Hernandez's decisive marker.
 
Earlier in the contest, Jordan Timmons staked RMU to a 1-0 lead just 6:24 into the contest, creating a turnover below the Canisius goal line before walking out and placing a wrist shot over the right shoulder of Barczewski
 
Addamo doubled the Colonials margin with less than five minutes to play in the opening frame, finishing off an odd-man rush with a snap shot that beat Barczewski to the blocker side.
 
Virtanen got Canisius on the board with a power-play tally at the 11:39 mark of the second, beating Colonials netminder Dylan Lubbesmeyer with a wrist shot from close range during a 5-on-3 opportunity to trim the deficit to 2-1.  
 
Herbert restored RMU's two-goal cushion with 4:24 remaining in the middle frame, deflecting a point shot from Nolan Schaeffer past Barczewski to make it a 3-1 contest.
 
Martan responded for Canisius on the following shift, however, as he wired a wrist shot past the right pad of Lubbesmeyer during a zone entry to make it a 3-2 game heading into the third.
 
Lubbesmeyer was credited with 33 saves in the victory. Barczewski tallied 30 saves between the pipes for Canisius.
 
Head Coach Trevor Large's Postgame Comments
"Our effort was not good enough tonight. I'm not going to say these words only when we win; we don't play to play, we play to win. So, we're disappointed tonight. It was a great hockey game: fast, physical. Two really good teams having a good battle and we came up short. So, we leave disappointed.
 
"I don't believe in hockey clichés. They're not real. It's not hard to sweep. It's not hard to get six points on the road. They're not real. We talked about that before the game. Those aren't real things. There are two teams that are going to battle at four o'clock today and we didn't win. So, our goal now is to get a little bit better tomorrow. Get a little bit better the next day. We'll take these lessons that we learned from tonight, but the biggest one is that we're leaving here pissed off. We wanted more. We're going have to find a way to do a little bit more to win.
 
"There's a lot of fight in this team. When we're up in games, when the game's tied, when we're down in games, the thing that I'm most impressed with our guys is that they're dialed in, they're focused, they're competitive. They're not satisfied with being up, tied, or losing in a game. There is a hunger on this team. It's all over our bench. It's in our net. It's everywhere. We're getting on the bus, driving home from Pittsburgh with three of six points and some teams would be satisfied and our guys are leaving pissed. That's what you need. It's a championship mentality that we need to take. So, was there fight from us tonight? Oh, there was fight. Do we need to get better? Yeah. Do you leave with that taste in your mouth of losing a game with less than two minutes left? We absolutely are and we need to lean into that feeling. We absolutely have to lean into the challenge of what it takes to win a championship in this conference. So, there are absolutely lessons that can be learned and that's one. Inside our locker room we're boiling. That's what's going to lead us and allow us to lean in to get a little bit better every day."
 
Game Notes
• Canisius saw its all-time record versus Robert Morris move to 11-22-4 with Saturday's setback.
• Canisius out-shot Robert Morris by a 37-35 margin for the contest, highlighted by a 15-11 edge in the second period.
• The Griffs were 1-for-4 on the power play while the Colonials were 0-for-1 with their lone man advantage opportunity.
• Canisius moved to 39-8-2 since the beginning of the 2016-17 season when scoring four or more goals in a contest.
• Gravel's third-period tally was the first shorthanded goal of his collegiate career.
• Meyer tallied multiple points in a game for the 13th time in his career as he finished the game with a goal and an assist.
• Junior Derek Hamelin recorded multiple assists in a game for the first time in his career with his two-assist effort on Saturday.
• Virtanen become the second member of the freshman class to score his first collegiate goal, joining fellow rookie Max Kouznetsov, who found the back of the net in the season opener last night.
 
Up Next
• Canisius returns to action Dec. 10 & 12 with a home-and-home series versus longtime rival Mercyhurst.
• The Griffs and Lakers open the two-game set Dec. 10 at LECOM Harborcenter before the series shifts to the Mercyhurst Ice Center in Erie, Pa., for the finale two days later.
• Game times for both contests will be announced as soon as they are finalized.  
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