Three-straight goals by Sacred Heart led the Pioneers to a 3-1 victory Friday night over the Canisius College hockey team at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.
The Golden Griffins (0-4, 0-1 Atlantic Hockey) got on the board first, exactly three minutes into the game when Michael Cohen notched his first goal of the season off assists from Carl Hudson and Josh Heidinger (Buffalo, N.Y.).
Sacred Heart (1-1-1, 1-0-1) responded with two goals later in the period – coming from Erik Boisvert and Nick Johnson. Boisvert scored at 7:52 to tie the game at 1-1. Johnson’s goal came with 1:01 left in the first period after he picked up a loose puck in front of the Canisius net and knocked it in while falling down to give the Pioneers the 2-1 advantage. Sacred Heart pushed its lead to two goals at 11:43 of the second period when Bear Trapp fired a shot from inside the slot, which was set up by a screen from Todd Spencer.
Bryce Luker made 23 saves in the loss while Jason Smith stopped 19 to pick up the win.
“We had good jump and energy tonight, but they are a good team. We played okay, but we need to play better,” Canisius coach Dave Smith said. “At times we looked for the easy way out and that led to two of their goals. They waited for us to make mistakes and capitalized on it.”
Canisius and Sacred Heart close out their weekend set Saturday night at the Buffalo State Sports Arena. Gametime is set for 7 p.m.
