Sophomore Rob Martin scored two goals and added two assists and junior Marc Bouffard scored the game-tying goal with 51 seconds remaining in the third period as Canisius skated to a 6-6 tie with Connecticut Saturday night at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.
Bouffard kept pounding on a loose puck in front of UConn netminder Jason Carey to provide the last-minute heroics. Fred Coccimiglio and Mark Persick assisted on the goal for Canisius. The Griffs move into a fourth-place tie in the MAAC Hockey League with a 12-15-3 overall record and an 11-8-3 mark in the MAAC, while the Huskies move to 11-12-7 overall, 10-7-5 in the conference.
Chris Duggan opened the scoring for Canisius at the 7:23 mark of the first period on a feed from Martin to give the Griffs the 1-0 lead. Paul Dusza also assisted on the goal. Martin doubled the lead to 2-0 for the Blue and Gold with 5:50 remaining as he put away a rebound off a shot by Dusza for his first of the night.
The Huskies would stage a rally in the late minutes of the period scoring two goals to knot the game at 2-2. Jon Ames cut the deficit to 2-1 at the 15:15 mark, tipping a shot from Matt Owens in front of the crease past Canisius goalie Bryan Worosz. UConn would tie the score a minute and 23 seconds later as Kurt Kaminski put the puck over a fallen Worosz.
Duggan would close the period like he started it, with a goal. His second of the night came with 1:04 remaining, a power-play goal from David Deeves and Martin gave Canisius a 3-2 lead into the first intermission.
The Huskies would tie the game 1:50 into the second period on a goal by Owens off a rebound in the slot. Martin would break the tie at the 8:51 mark as Dusza fed him in the slot from behind the net for his second of the night and Dusza’s third assist of the game.
UConn’s Owens knotted the game once again under a minute later as he beat Worosz with a slapshot to the glove side at the 9:42 mark. Canisius answered just 11 seconds later with a goal by Scott Teeter as he took a pass from Paul DiPasquale in front of the net and jammed it in the short side for the 5-4 lead. However, Connecticut would not go away as Patrick McLaughin’s slapshot beat Worosz from the right circle to tie the game once again.
UConn took their first lead of the game at the 9:53 mark of the third period on Kaminski’s second goal of the evening. Bouffard would send the game into overtime with his goal in the final minute and neither team could solve the tie in the extra period.
Several players earned multiple points for both teams. Martin’s four points led the Griffs, while Duggan and Dusza each registered three points. Owens’ four points led UConn, who also received three points from Ron D’Angelo and Kaminski. Worosz posted 21 saves for Canisius, while Carey stopped 28 for the Huskies.
