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Canisius University Athletics

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Niagara Josef Mysak shoots a puck towards the net during Canisius' matchup with Niagara at LECOM Harborcenter on Feb. 11, 2022
Lindy Feider
4
Winner Niagara NIA 11-16-2, 10-9-2
1
Canisius CAN 13-12-3, 10-9-2
Winner
Niagara NIA
11-16-2, 10-9-2
4
Final
1
Canisius CAN
13-12-3, 10-9-2
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 F
Niagara NIA 0 1 3 4
Canisius CAN 1 0 0 1

Game Recap: Ice Hockey |

Hockey Defeated by Niagara in Series Opener

Ryan Cox and Chris Harpur scored two goals apiece to pace Niagara in a 4-1 victory over Canisius in Atlantic Hockey Association action Friday at LECOM Harborcenter.
 
Cox scored twice in a 40-second span between the final minute of the second and the opening minute of the third to put the Purple Eagles (11-16-2, 10-9-2 AHA) in front before Harpur added a pair of insurance markers late to seal the victory. Chad Veltri finished with 26 saves between the pipes for Niagara.
 
Senior Lee Lapid accounted for the lone tally for the Golden Griffins (13-12-3, 10-9-2 AHA).  Junior Jacob Barczewski recorded 31 stops in goal for Canisius.
 
Playing the front half of a home-and-home series, Niagara trailed 1-0 late in the second period before Cox tied the game with a power-play goal in the final seconds of the second, deflecting a Walker Sommer's wrist shot past Barczewski from the top of the crease to knot the score at 1-1.  
 
Cox gave the Purple Eagles their first lead of the contest on the opening shift of the third period as Olivier Gauthier sprung Cox on a breakaway, where he slid the puck under the pads of Barczewski to make it a 2-1 contest.
 
Harpur tallied two goals a little more than three minutes apart late in the in third to put the game out of reach. He notched his first of the contest with a power-play tally at the 15:53 mark before closing out the scoring with an empty-net marker with 53 seconds to play to determine the final margin.
 
Lapid opened the scoring at the 17:24 mark of the first period, putting home junior Keaton Mastrodonato's centering feed for his 10th goal of the season.
 
Head Coach Trevor Large's Postgame Comments
"The better team won tonight. It felt like we were not as connected as a group as we needed to be tonight and overall you look at all areas they were better than us in: power play, penalty kill five-on-five, goaltending. We have some work to do. I believe in our group. I know we're going to be better off for it. The goal now is to be better by seven o'clock tomorrow.
 
We need to play north-south. We were trying to shut things down too much. There was too much east-west movement with the puck. We were trying to make long passes. Things that we don't talk about crept into our game tonight. We were just over overly creative in times where we just needed to play more north-south and show support. It happened all over the ice, from net to net, it was our breakout through the neutral zone and an into the forecheck and as we're tracking back we were poorly that poorly with effort and obviously not enough to be a good Niagara team.
 
"Anytime a team scores with four seconds left in a period when you're up 1-0, maybe it stings a little bit more. But the reality was it was a good play by them on a power play with a good tip in front. So, you get back into the intermission and our guys are talking about what we need to do to come out and execute and in the first shift of the third, all of a sudden on a bad change by us, they get a breakaway and then we weren't able to get the momentum back. But that boost for them felt real. We needed to respond better than we did. The goal moving forward is we need to learn from examples like that. We got to be ready when a third period starts in a 1-1 hockey game; much better than we were today."
 
Game Notes
• Friday's game served as the 64th meeting between Canisius and Niagara. The all-time series is now tied at 29-29-6 following Friday's contest.
• Niagara out-shot Canisius, 35-27, for the contest, highlighted by a 23-15 edge over the final two periods.
• Niagara was 2-for-2 on the power play on Friday while Canisius was 0-for-3 with the man advantage.
• Lapid scored his 10th goal of the season on Friday, becoming the third Canisius player to reach double digits in goals this season (Mastrodonato and Austin Alger). Lapid also extended his point-scoring streak to a career-long six games with his first-period goal.
• Senior Mitchell Martan notched his team-leading 16th assist of the campaign with a helper on Lapid's first-period goal.
• Mastrodonato has tallied a point in each of the last three games since his return to the lineup from injury on Feb. 4.
• Barczewski made 30 or more saves in a game for the ninth time this season with his 31-save effort on Friday.
 
Up Next
The teams complete their home-and-home series Saturday with a 7 p.m. contest at Dwyer Arena in Lewiston, N.Y.
 
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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