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Canisius University Athletics

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Canisius forward Ryan Miotto skates with the puck during action vs RPI at Hosuton Field House in Troy, N.Y.
RPI Athletics
4
Canisius Can 2-2-1
4
Clarkson CGK 1-1-1
Canisius Can
2-2-1
4
Final
4
Clarkson CGK
1-1-1
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 OT 1 F
Canisius Can 1 2 1 0 4
Clarkson CGK 3 0 1 0 4

Game Recap: Ice Hockey |

Hockey Battles to 4-4 Tie at Clarkson

Canisius scored four unanswered goals to rally from an early 3-0 deficit and skate to a 4-4 tie versus Clarkson in collegiate men's hockey action Tuesday at Cheel Arena in Potsdam, N.Y.
 
Junior Simon Gravel, graduate student Jake Witkowski, senior Lee Lapid and Junior Ryan Miotto scored for the Golden Griffins (2-2-1). Junior John Hawthorne made a career-high 37 saves between the pipes for Canisius.
 
Zach Tsekos tallied two goals while Jordan Power and Lukas Kaelble notched one goal each for The Golden Knights (1-1-1). Ethan Haider made 18 saves.
 
Clarkson took a 1-0 lead just 1:49 into the contest as Tsekos finished off an odd-man rush with an assist from Anthony Romano.  
 
Power doubled the Golden Knights advantage to 2-0 just before the halfway point of the opening frame, wiring a wrist shot from the top of the point through traffic and over the glove of Hawthorne.
 
Kaelble made it a 3-0 contest at the 12:56 mark of the first with a power-play goal as his shot from the top of the circles found its way to into the Canisius goal.
 
Gravel got the Griffs on the board during 4-on-4 action late in the first, causing a turnover in the neutral zone and out-racing the Clarkson defense for the loose puck before sliding it between the legs of Haider to make it a 3-1 contest.
 
Witkowski pulled Canisius within one just before the eight-minute mark of the second period when he drove to the net and put home sophomore Max Kouznetsov's centering feed for his first collegiate tally.
 
Lapid tied the game at 3-3 with 4:01 remaining in the second period, capitalizing on a rebound from a turn-around shot off the stick of junior Keaton Mastrodonato for his second of the season.
 
Miotto gave Canisius its first lead of the contest just 72 seconds into the third, beating Haider with a wrist shot to the glove side from the middle of the slot during a zone entry for his first goal of the season.
 
Canisius remained in the lead until the final minute of regulation. Tsekos scored his second goal of the game with a power-play tally with 51 seconds to play, putting home a loose puck during a goalmouth scramble after a point shot from Kaelble found the crossbar and dropped into the crease to knot the score at 4-4.
 
In overtime, Clarkson controlled possession for much of the extra session, but neither team was able to notch the game-winning goal, resulting in the game ending in a tie.
 
Head Coach Trevor Large's Postgame Comments
"We did not achieve what we wanted to tonight. We came here for the win and we're leaving with a tie. There was a lot of adversity early in lots of areas. Our team did not handle that the best we could in the first period and then it took us too long to respond. We responded in the second but I wish, and we have a plan for this, but I wish we would have had a better response during the adversity in the first and there was a lot of it in the first period. But really proud of the effort after that. I was disappointed in the first, but the second and third, we started to really gain momentum. We're up a goal on the road and it's bad luck on a penalty late in the third in terms of an honest mistake by one of our guys that tried to win the draw and it end up hitting his glove and he's in the box and it's a 6-on-4 and they score. In overtime, they obviously had possession for most of it. But we had to communicate, we had to play defense and we were waiting for an opportunity and it didn't come.
 
"Call it score effects, call it whatever you want. Our guys felt like in that second period, we had a lot to prove. Whenever a team is up on you, it does give you a sense that maybe they took their foot off the gas, but we don't. I was proud of the fact that we scratched and clawed to get back in the game. Simon Gravel scored that first goal, that gave us a little bit of a boost, but it was 3-1 after the first and they were on us pretty good. But obviously we scratch and claw to come back.
 
"You're never happy with a tie. We're leaving pissed off. We didn't achieve the goal that we came here for. We did learn about what it feels like when they pull their goalie. We've been through that a few times this year already, but it's still a good experience for our team. We haven't had a 6-on-4 scenario. Obviously, Clarkson gets a late goal, so we need to find a way to still continue to play. There was less than a minute left when they scored (the game-tying goal), but I did like that we pushed to the end of the game."
 
Game Notes
• Tuesday's contest served as the ninth meeting between Canisius and Clarkson. The tie was the fourth in the series and the fifth game between the two programs to go to overtime.
• Clarkson out-shot Canisius by a 41-22 margin, highlighted by an 18-6 advantage in the first period.
• Canisius was 0-for-3 on the power play while Clarkson was 2-for-7 with the man advantage.
• The Griffs moved to 46-8-3 since the start of the 2016-17 season when scoring four or more goals in a game.
• Witkowski became the second Canisius player to score his first career goal this season with his second-period tally (Hudson Lambert vs RPI on Oct. 15).
• Gravel's first-period tally was the Griffs third unassisted goal of the season.
• Mastrodonato recorded an assist on Lapid's second-period tally, giving him a point in each of the Griffs first five games this season.
• Hawthorne's 37 stops on Tuesday surpassed his previous career high of 35, set at Boston University on Oct. 18, 2019.
• Hawthorne stopped a penalty shot in the first period, marking the first save on a penalty shot by a Canisius goaltender since junior Jacob Barczewski turned aside Holy Cross' Erkka Vanska on Dec. 29, 2019.
 
Up Next
Canisius opens the home portion of its 2021-22 schedule on Halloween Weekend as it welcomes Ferris State to LECOM Harborcenter for a non-conference series. The Griffs and Bulldogs open their two-game set Oct. 29 before wrapping the series the following evening. Puck drop for both contests is set for 7 p.m.
 
For complete coverage of the Canisius hockey team, please follow the Griffs on social media at @GriffsHockey on Twitter and Instagram.
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