Lindy Feider

Box Score

RIT RIT 5-4-2, 3-2-2

Canisius CAN 5-4-1, 2-1-0

RIT RIT

5-4-2, 3-2-2

Final

Nov. 12, 2021

Canisius CAN

5-4-1, 2-1-0

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	3	F
RIT RIT	2	0	0	2
Canisius CAN	1	2	2	5

Game Recap: Ice Hockey | 11/12/2021 10:07:00 PM

Power Play Propels Hockey to Victory Versus RIT

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RIT

11/13/2021 | 4 p.m.

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Nov. 13 (Sat) / 4 p.m.

RIT

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Canisius tallied four power-play goals on its way to a 5-2 victory over RIT in Atlantic Hockey Association action Friday at LECOM Harborcenter in downtown Buffalo.

Sophomore defenseman Jackson Decker tallied two goals and added an assist for a career-high three points to pace the Golden Griffins (5-4-1, 2-1-0 AHA). Senior Lee Lapid, sophomore Max Kouznetsov and junior Keaton Mastrodonato also scored for Canisius. Junior Jacob Barczewski finished with 24 saves between the pipes.

Jake Hamacher registered a goal and an assist for the Tigers (5-4-2, 3-2-2 AHA). Elijah Gonsalves accounted for the other RIT tall while Kolby Matthews made 20 stops in goal.

Special teams played a huge role in the contest, with the teams combining for six power-play goals and one shorthanded marker.

Decker opened the scoring at the 5:05 mark of the opening frame, beating Matthews to the glove side with a wrist shot from the middle of the slot for his first of the campaign.

RIT answered back with a pair of power-play tallies 2:17 apart midway through the period to take a 2-1 lead.

Gonsalves tied the game = just past the 12-minute mark, tapping home a backdoor feed from Hamacher before Hamacher gave RIT the lead when he beat a sprawling Barczewski with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle after Will Calverley's initial attempt was blocked by a Canisius defenseman.

Lapid brought the Griffs level just 19 seconds into the middle period, putting senior Mitchell Martan's centering feed for his fourth goal of the campaign.

Kouznetsov restored Canisius' lead just before the midway point of the contest, firing a puck through a screen and past the blocker of Matthews to give the Griffs a 3-2 lead.

Decker doubled the Griffs advantage to 4-2 as notched his second goal of the game just 75 seconds into the third, jamming home a loose puck from just off the left post after senior J.D. Pogue's wraparound attempt was turned aside by Matthews.

Mastrodonato closed out the scoring, recording an empty-net tally with less than two minutes to play in the third to determine the three-goal margin of victory.

Head Coach Trevor Large's Postgame Comments
"Tonight was obviously a power-play game. You look at the box score and you see six power play goals combined and we get the shorthand empty netter to seal the deal, but the power play was spectacular tonight. Credit to them. They've been very coachable. They listened to the details that we've been trying to work on and tonight was a bit of a coming out party for them. Discipline is still an issue. Both teams would say we would rather play more 5-on-5, but obviously we get the win tonight. We have some things we have to work on. But all in all, the power play gets it done for us this evening.

"Our power play starts with support puck, movement and being predictable for each other. Every power play has a system, but our players are the reason why our power play works. They were predictable for each other tonight. We got the puck around the net. We were able to get more shots on net than we have in the past. That is obviously part of the plan. But the players are the reason that we had success on the power play tonight.

"They've got a really good power play. We had a plan for how we wanted to play them shorthanded. It just so happened on the two goals they scored that we didn't execute our plan. It's tough because they have a very good power play. They have very good players. Historically, they've always had a good power play and they do so again this year. So, it was 'okay, our attention to detail has to go up.' We knew what they were trying to do. We did not execute our plan. So that's something we had to get better at as the game went on. Obviously, you can look at the results and see how that worked. But we need heavy detail on the penalty kill and we had a couple lapses and they took advantage and good for them."

Game Notes
• Friday's game served as the 50th meeting between Canisius and RIT as Division I rivals. The Griffs moved to 22-26-2 against the Tigers with the win.
• Canisius improved to 8-2-1 against RIT at LECOM Harborcenter. The Griffs have now won five straight on home ice against the Tigers.
• RIT out-shot Canisius, 26-25, for the contest, thanks to a 10-8 edge in shots on goal in the first period.
• Canisius was 4-6 on the power play while RIT was 2-for-7 with the man advantage.
• The Griffs' four power-play goals marked the first time Canisius has scored four power-play goals in a game since a 6-3 victory over Clarkson on Nov. 10, 2018.
• Canisius improved to 4-0-0 this season when scoring the first goal of the game and also saw its record move to 4-0-1 when scoring four or more goals in a contest.
• Decker tallied multiple points in a game for the first time his career with his three-point effort on Friday.
• Mastrodonato recorded the fifth shorthanded goal of his career with his empty-net goal in the third period. He moved within one of matching Jason Weeks for the program's Division I record for shorthanded goals in a career.
• Mastrodonato tallied multiple points in a game for the fourth time this season with his two-point effort on Friday.
• Martan recorded multiple assists in a game for the third time this season with a two-assist effort on Friday.
• Kouznetsov posted multiple points in a game for the second time in his career with a goal and an assist on Friday. Both of his multi-point games have come against the Tigers.

Up Next
The teams complete their two-game series Saturday with a 4 p.m. contest at LECOM Harborcenter.

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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