Canisius scored four unanswered goals to erase a one-goal deficit and defeat Air Force, 4-1, in Atlantic Hockey Association action Tuesday at the Cadet Ice Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Senior Keaton Mastrodonato tallied two goals, including the game-winner, to pace the Golden Griffins (12-15-3, 10-9-3 AHA), who moved past Mercyhurst into seventh place in the league standings with Tuesday’s victory. Junior Randy Hernandez tallied a goal and assist while graduate student Grant Loven accounted for the fourth Canisius goal.
Senior goaltender John Hawthorne stopped 28-of-29 shots faced as he picked up his second victory in four days between the pipes for the Blue and Gold.
Nate Horn tallied the lone goal for the Falcons (12-18-2, 8-13-1 AHA) while Austin Park made 21 saves in goal for the home team.
Horn opened the scoring at the 14:21 mark of the first, collecting a loose puck and flipping under the right arm of Hawthorne to give the Falcons the lead.
Canisius responded with a pair of goals just 30 seconds apart early in the second period to take the lead. Hernandez began the sequence just 2:14 into the middle frame, streaking down the right side before firing wrist shot past the left shoulder of Park to knot the score at 1-1.
Mastrodonato put Canisius in front on the next shift when his wrap around attempt deflected off an Air Force defender and into the goal to give the Griffs a 2-1 edge.
The Griffs protected their one-goal lead until the final minutes of the third, when they recorded a pair of tallies just 16 seconds apart to put the game out of reach.
Loven provided the insurance marker at the 16:52 mark of the final frame when he stuffed home a rebound off the end wall on a shot from the point by junior Cody Schiavon to before Mastrodonato closed out the scoring with an empty-net tally moments later, hitting the vacated Falcons cage with a shot from inside the Canisius defensive zone.
Head Coach Trevor Large‘s Post Game Comments
“Obviously, tonight was a great team effort. We had better energy tonight than we did last night. We had another spectacular performance from John Hawthorne in net. It took a lot of guys giving a lot of effort tonight. We got a big goal by Randy Hernandez followed up by Keaton Mastrodonato right after that to put us in a great position going into the third period up 2-1. We’re getting really good at handling what that is, both at home and on the road. So, obviously a huge win for the Griffs tonight.
“We challenged our guys today as a staff. We talked about which version of them was going to show up tonight. I think whenever you do that you can find out a lot about the guys on your team, both as individuals and as a whole. The bench demeanor was much better tonight. The guys showed up ready to compete and win their battles. It was a night-and-day difference from 24 hours earlier. That was the response that we were looking for. It didn’t mean we were going to win the game, but our overall play was at a much higher level tonight.
“We learned a lot over these last four games. We learned that we can handle adversity by staying present with what’s currently happening, one day at a time. Sometimes you get to this point in the season and teams will look too far ahead or too far in the rearview mirror. Our guys are living in the present. They are very attentive. When you have these games, you’re going to need efforts from some guys who maybe haven’t played a lot or maybe have not played in a lot of games lately. We’ve lost some guys that are really important to us throughout this stretch and not having your fifth-year captain (J.D. Pogue) is a big challenge. But we’ve learned that we have depth of leadership. We work really hard to develop leaders of character and when you do that, you do have a void when certain guys aren’t there, but people step up and fill that void. So, we’ve learned a lot about the leadership of our group.”
Game Notes
• Canisius picked up its first win in its last six tries against Air Force at Cadet Ice Arena, winning in Colorado Springs for the first time since Feb. 19, 2019.
• Air Force outshot Canisius by a 29-25 margin for the contest, highlighted by a 9-7 advantage in the third period.
• Both teams were 0-for-4 on the power play during Tuesday’s contest.
• Canisius held its opponent to two goals or less for the fourth time in the last five games as it moved to 4-1 during that stretch.
• Canisius improved to 9-0-0 this season when taking a lead into the third period with Tuesday’s victory.
• The Griffs moved to 7-2-0 when scoring four or more goals in a game this season.
• Mastrodonato’s two-goal performance was his third multiple-goal effort of the season and the seventh of his career. He also moved into the team lead with 10th and 11th goals of the season on Tuesday.
• Mastrodonato recorded his second game-winning goal in the last three games with his second-period tally on Tuesday.
• Hernandez tallied multiple points in a game for the fourth time this season and the 12th time in his career with his two-point effort on Tuesday.
• Junior defenseman Jack Lyons picked up his first career assist with the helper on Hernandez’s second-period goal. Both of his first career points have come at Air Force as he scored his first career goal at Cadet Ice Arena on Feb. 19, 2021.
Up Next
Canisius returns home for its final two home games of the regular season thi weekend as it welcomes Sacred Heart to LECOM Harborcenter for a pair of games. Puck drop for both contests of the Feb. 18-19 series is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Tickets for both games are still available. They can be purchased by visiting the tickets page on GoGriffs.com or at the LECOM Harborcenter ticket kiosk.
For complete coverage of the Canisius hockey team, please follow the Griffs on social media at @GriffsHockey on Twitter and Instagram.
