Canisius dropped another close game, 3-1, to Sacred Heart Saturday night at the Buffalo State Sports Arena. The loss was the 10th straight for the Griffs (5-16-1, 3-12-1 Atlantic Hockey), with the last eight losses coming by a combined 14 goals, and four of those goals being empty-net goals.
Sacred Heart had a goal in each period, with its first coming 5:53 into the contest when Peter Giatrelis took a pass from Kyle Tyll and slid the puck into the bottom left corner of the net.
The Pioneers added a momentum-changing goal with 35 seconds remaining in the second period. Sacred Heart went up ice on a 3-on-2 rush. Dave Grimson dropped the puck to Pierre-Luc O’Brien who fired the puck into the left corner of the net for his team-high 13th goal of the season, making the score 2-0.
The Griffs cut it to 2-1 at 9:08 of the third period when junior forward Michael Cohen intercepted a Sacred Heart pass and found an open Joey Coccimiglio. Coccimiglio went over the glove of Sacred Heart goalie Stefan Drew for his seventh goal of the season and first in six games.
Sacred Heart put the game away with an empty net goal from Kalen Wright with 42 seconds left in the contest to provide the final margin.
Drew (2-1-0) stopped 20-of-21 shots to get the win in his first start since Dec. 22, while Canisius goalie Max Buetow made 28 saves and fell to 1-8-0.
Canisius killed all four Sacred Heart power plays and now hasn’t allowed a power-play goal over the past six games, killing the past 30 opportunities.
The Blue and Gold lost for the 10th consecutive game, which matches the longest losing streak in program history since a school-record 10-game skid from Dec. 9, 1988 to Jan. 22, 1989.
