Canisius and RIT came into the first of their two-game weekend series heading in opposite directions. RIT had won three in a row. Canisius had been winless in its last three (0-2-1). That trend reversed itself Friday, as Canisius came away with a 6-3 win with their leading scorer, Shane Conacher, scoring the final two.
The game had many subplots.
Canisius had outscored its opponents in the first period in the last four games, 5-1, yet only won one of them. Tonight, the team jumped out to 3-0 and 4-1 leads (3-1 after one) and nearly blew it.
Dylan McLoughlin of Canisius, a local player in western New York, registered his first multi-point game, scoring a goal and getting two assists.
Canisius, which has averaged just two goals per game, equaled its highest tally of the season.
Meanwhile, RIT once again had to go with its backup goalie. Mike Rotolo has not seen action since leaving midway through the Tigers’
previous game against Mercyhurst after being run over. Freshman Christian Short was in net.
To top it all off, with the students still away on winter break, the Gene Polisseni Center was sparsely populated and so was the excitement level.
“We didn’t compete very hard; we didn’t make the game very hard,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson. “We just played a very easy game tonight. It was just an average game for us in all departments.”
“Our effort was very high tonight,” said Canisius coach Dave Smith. “We played with great discipline and purpose.”
That early 3-0 lead by the Golden Griffins came on a power play, even strength, and short-handed goal.
McLaughlin made a nice cross-ice pass from right to left which Felix Chamberland put into the near-side as Short did not move over in time.
McLaughlin got his turn to score when he deked Short to go down by one post and then went quickly around the net for a wrap-around as Short never recovered in time.
Next, while short-handed, Short played the puck behind the net. Without help and without seeing Joshua Gabriel, Short was stripped of the puck, which Gabriel quickly wrapped around the post as Short couldn’t get back in time.
During that same power play, RIT finally got on the scoreboard. Brady Norrish put in a quick one-timer off a Josh Mitchell cross-ice pass.
The second period saw three goals scored in a span of 1:19. Short let a rebound fall behind him without seeing it, and Ralph Cuddemi followed up his own shot to push it in while on a power play.
RIT then scored twice in 36 seconds. Gabe Valenzuela shot it from the right circle after receiving an Erik Brown pass from behind the net, which was followed by Alex Perron-Fontaine tipping one in from the backdoor.
The Tigers missed on a few good opportunities to tie it up, only to see Canisius score again with 27.1 seconds left in the second period. Right off the faceoff, Conacher fired it over Short’s shoulder from the top of the right circle.
“We actually get the draw,” Wilson explained. “And they strip us. That kind of typified our night.”
“It was great,” Smith said.
The third period played out as if the teams were already looking forward to the second game. Eventually, RIT pulled its goalie early, applied some pressure, but Canisius finally transitioned the other way. After some struggles aiming at the empty net, Conacher finally did the trick to seal the win.
Simon Hofley made 29 saves for the win.
“Simon played well,” Smith said. “He saw pucks. He wasn’t giving any second chances.”
The two teams do it all over again Saturday night.
“We need to be prepared to play with that same effort and get after it again tomorrow night,” Smith said.
“It will be Short,” Wilson said of his goaltending situation.
