A pair of second-period goals put visiting Quinnipiac ahead for good, beating Canisius 4-3 at the Buffalo State Sports Arena Friday night in MAAC action. The Griffs fall to 12-15-2 overall and 11-8-2 in the MAAC, while Quinnipiac improves to 14-11-4, 12-5-4 in conference play.
Canisius fell behind at the 3:48 mark of the first period as Quinnipiac’s Neil Breen cut into the slot and beat Griff netminder Sean Weaver to the glove side for the 1-0 lead.
The Griffs rallied for two late goals to take a 2-1 advantage into the first break. Chris Duggan took a feed from Steve Birch in the slot and beat Quinnipiac goalie Jamie Holden to knot the game at 18:53 of the first. Rob Martin also assisted on the goal.
A slashing penalty by Ben Blais at 19:42 gave Canisius a power play and Fred Coccimiglio took full advantage seven seconds later scoring on a wrister from the right face-off circle that beat Holden to the far post. David Deeves and Brad Kenny assisted on the power-play goal for Canisius.
The second period belonged to Quinnipiac, which took the 3-2 lead on two straight goals. Wade Winkler’s slapshot from the left circle beat Weaver on the stick side at the 3:09 mark to tie the game at 2-2. Matt Erhart’s power-play goal from the point with 55 seconds remaining in the period gave Quinnipiac the lead for good into the second intermission.
Quinnipiac extended the lead to 4-2 at the 3:33 mark as Ryan Olson’s slapshot from the point beat Weaver for Olson’s second point of the night. Kenny brought Canisius within one goal on a power-play tally at the 7:39 mark as Duggan fed a pass to the point and Kenny’s slapshot beat Holden.
Canisius had an opportunity to tie the game late in the third period after an illegal stick penalty on Herbert and a bench delay-of-game penalty gave the Griffs a 6-on-3 advantage with 11 seconds left, but Holden held his ground for Quinnipiac in the waning moments.
Weaver posted 18 saves in the loss for Canisius, while Holden stopped 35 for Quinnipiac.
