CANISIUS COLLEGE ATHLETICS
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Kyle Stephan tallied two goals and Stefano Durante stopped 34 shots to lead AIC to a 6-1 victory over Canisius in Atlantic Hockey Association action Saturday at KeyBank Rink at Harborcenter.
Tobias Fladeby, Luka Mayer, Chris Theodore and Darius Davidson also scored for the Yellow Jackets (3-5-1, 3-2-1 AHA), who earned a split of their league series with Saturday’s victory.
Senior Dylan McLaughlin scored his team-leading fifth goal of the campaign to account for the lone tally for the Golden Griffins (3-4-0, 3-3-0 AHA). Sophomore Tucker Weppner recorded 26 saves in goal for the Blue and Gold.
Fladeby staked AIC to a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the contest when he put home a loose puck for his third of the campaign.
Stephan doubled the Yellow Jackets cushion to 2-0 at the 15:36 mark of the opening frame, stuffing the puck just inside the left post on a wraparound attempt for his second of the season.
Meyer made it a 3-0 contest just past the midway point of the contest, beating Weppner with a shot just under the crossbar to the blocker side for his second goal of the series.
Theodore stretched the Yellow Jackets margin to 4-0 a little more than three minutes later when he deposited a feed from Stephen into the back of the Griffs cage for his second of the campaign.
McLaughlin attempted to spark a third-period comeback with a power-play tally early in the third period, but Davidson and Stephan scored just 1:12 apart later in the frame to put the game out of reach.
Head Coach Trevor Large‘s Postgame Comments
“Sweeps are definitely tough. It’s hard in any league against any opponent to get a sweep. We talked a lot about how it was an individual game. We needed to come out and be the aggressor. That’s the way you get sweeps done. You don’t put so much pressure on it and you definitely don’t let up after Friday night. It’s something that we have to learn, that we need to be better to win games no matter what the circumstances are.They were better than us tonight.”
Game Notes
• Saturday’s game served as the 65th meeting between Canisius and AIC. The Griffs moved to 40-18-7 against the Yellow Jackets in the all-time series while also moving to 10-3-4 in its last 17 contests against AIC at home with Saturday’s setback.
• AIC out-shot Canisius by a 28-24 margin in the contest, highlighted by a 15-8 edge in shots on target during the third period.
• Canisius was 1-for-4 on the power play while AIC was 0-for-3 with the man advantage. The power-play goal was the Griffs sixth in seven games this season.
• McLaughlin recorded his 44th career goal with his third-period tally, moving him into a tie with Carl Hudson (2006-10) for seventh place on the program’s career goals chart during the Division I era.
• Junior Matt Stief picked up his team-leading sixth assist of the season with his secondary helper on McLaughlin’s third-period tally.
Up Next
• Canisius and Clarkson complete their home-and-home series Nov. 10 with a 7:35 p.m. contest at Harborcenter.
• Tickets for the game are available. They can be purchased by visiting the tickets page on GoGriffs.com or by calling 716-888-TIXX.
