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Canisius University Athletics

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Canisius forward Max Kouznetsov battles for position in game action vs Army West Point at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass on March 19, 2021
4
Winner Canisius CAN 11-5-0
3
Army West Point AWP 15-6-1
Winner
Canisius CAN
11-5-0
4
Final
3
Army West Point AWP
15-6-1
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 OT 1 F
Canisius CAN 0 2 1 1 4
Army West Point AWP 1 0 2 0 3

Game Recap: Ice Hockey |

Hockey Advances to AHA Championship with Overtime Victory over Army

Junior J.D. Pogue scored at the 13:23 mark of overtime to lift Canisius to a 4-3 victory over No. 19 Army in the second semifinal of the 2021 Atlantic Hockey Association Tournament Friday at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.
 
Sophomore Simon Gravel, junior Mitchell Martan and freshman Max Kouznetsov also scored for the Golden Griffins (11-5-0), who advanced to Saturday's championship game with the overtime triumph. They will face reigning champion AIC, who defeated Niagara by a 2-1 margin in Friday's other semifinal contest, in a 7 p.m. puck drop at the MassMutual Center.  
 
Jake Felker, Thomas Farrell and Matt Berkovitz all found the back of the net for the Black Knights (15-6-1), who saw their 13-game unbeaten streak, as well as their season, come to an end.  
 
Pogue notched the decisive tally a little more than six minutes into the first overtime session, collecting a pass from freshman Cooper Haar at the top of the Army zone and skating down the left side before beating Army goaltender Trevin Kozlowski with a wrist shot to the blocker side to send the Griffs to the championship game.
 
Felker opened the scoring with a little more than five minutes to play in the opening period, capitalizing on a loose puck by firing a slap shot just inside the left post from the middle of the slot for his third of the campaign.  
 
Canisius responded with a pair of goals just 46 seconds apart early in the second period to take a 2-1 lead. Gravel opened the sequence at the 6:02 mark of the second, receiving a stretch pass from senior Blake Wareham in the neutral zone and racing down the right side before placing a wrist shot under the right arm of Kozlowski to tie the game at 1-1.
 
Martan put the Griffs in front less than a minute later with a power-play goal, stuffing home a goalmouth feed from junior Lee Lapid for his sixth of the season to put Canisius in front, 2-1.
 
Army tied the game at 2-2 just 1:51 into the third period as Farrell found a loose puck in the slot and slid it under the pads of Canisius goaltender Jacob Barczewski.  
 
Berkovitz put the Black Knights back in front seconds before the midway point of the third, one-timing a feed from Brett Abdelnour that beat Barczewski from the right faceoff circle to give Army a 3-2 advantage.
 
Kouznetsov pulled Canisius level with a power-play goal at the 14:07 mark of the third, deflecting a point shot from Gravel past Kozlowski from the middle of the slot to knot the score at 3-3 and send the game to overtime, setting the stage for Pogue's heroics.
 
Barczewski made 26 saves in goal for Canisius while Kozlowski finished with 27 stops between the pipes for Army.
 
Head Coach Trevor Large's Postgame Comments
"It took everything we had to beat a very good Army team in overtime tonight. There was a couple of ebbs and flows to the game. They came out unbelievably hard. Really a ton of respect for the Army hockey team. They played hard. They play strong. It took everything from us to get them to overtime and then really at that point it's anybody's game. It just so happens that it's a great play from Cooper Haar that keeps the puck alive and J.D. Pogue came off the bench and scored the goal that we all want to score, right? The overtime winner to put you into a championship game. So, obviously very proud of our team. Very excited for tomorrow. Then there's the other side as well. I'm thinking about the Army team in the other room and their seniors and their staff and all the guys that put in work there. So, I'm really excited for Canisius and nothing but respect for Army.
 
"They really did a good job taking away the middle of the ice. We were breaking the puck out disconnected. We were trying long passes and really, it's a credit to them. Their forecheck was extremely hard. They're extremely physical. They're obviously a skilled team that can make some plays. So, it's a combination of those things. Their extremely physical play made it really hard to get any speed in the middle of the ice. So, we ended up trying to make longer passes and it did not enable us to play together. Kozlowski is a great goalie. You look at all the goals that we were able to get by him tonight. It took some tips and screens and some pretty great scoring chances. I thought he was he was solid. The goaltending matchup lived up to the hype. Those are two elite goalies going head-to-head. I'm just excited that Barzo (Jacob Barczewski) gets the win in terms of that goalie matchup. but I thought Kozlowski was very sharp.
 
"it's a calm demeanor. For those of you who were able to watch it, if you focus on our bench, it's a very calm demeanor. Our guys don't get too high, they don't get too low. It requires a lot of conversations about how to do that and we've been doing it all season. I think outsiders would say that we have slow starts and I don't feel that's real. I just think it's just that we go out and play the game the same way. Whether we're up or down. we play the same way. If you look at our record going into the third period, it's pretty strong. That's a sign of a good team and then obviously Army tonight we're up to one in the going into the third, and they get two quick ones, but our guys stay calm, they stayed composed, we stayed very positive on the bench, and I believe that culture and demeanor allows us to be in every game, no matter what the score, so that definitely helped us today."
 
Game Notes
• Canisius advanced to the championship game of the Atlantic Hockey Tournament for the third time in program history and the first time since 2014 with Friday's victory.
• Friday's contest was the first postseason matchup between Canisius and Army. Canisius evened the all-time series against Army at 30-30-6 with Friday's overtime triumph as it improved its all-time record against the Black Knights in overtime to 3-1-5.
• Canisius improved its record in overtime contests in the Atlantic Hockey Tournament to 9-4 with Friday's win. The game was its first postseason overtime contest for the Griffs since a 4-3 victory in game two of a first-round series at Niagara back on March 9, 2019.
• The Griffs out-shot Army by a 31-29 margin for the contest, highlighted by a 10-6 edge in the third period.
• Canisius was 2-for-5 on the powerplay while Army was 0-for-2 with the man advantage on Friday.  
• Canisius improved to 9-0-0 this season when leading after 40 minutes. The Griffs also improved to 11-2-0 when tallying three or more goals in a game.
• The Griffs moved to 6-6-1 under Large against nationally-ranked opponents and 4-1-0 ranked opponents from the AHA with Friday's victory.
•  Canisius moved to 2-1-0 in overtime this season with Friday's victory.
• Pogue scored his second game-winning goal of the season with his overtime tally on Friday, having also notched the decisive marker in a 5-3 triumph against RIT on Feb. 12.
• Canisius improved to 7-0-0 this season when Lapid records a point as he notched an assist during Friday's contest. Lapid has also extended his point-scoring streak to three games with his helper.
 
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