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Members of the Canisius hockey celebrate after defeating Mercyhurst, 5-2, in the first round of the AHA Postseason Saturday at LECOM Harborcenter
Lindy Feider
2
Mercyhurst MCY 9-22-4
5
Winner Canisius CAN 12-19-4
Mercyhurst MCY
9-22-4
2
Final
5
Canisius CAN
12-19-4
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 F
Mercyhurst MCY 0 0 2 2
Canisius CAN 2 2 1 5

Game Recap: Ice Hockey |

Hockey Knocks Off Mercyhurst in First Round of AHA Postseason

Three players tallied a goal and an assist to pace No. 8 seed Canisius in a 5-2 victory over No. 9 seed Mercyhurst in first-round action in the 2024 Atlantic Hockey Association Postseason Saturday at the LECOM Harborcenter in downtown Buffalo.
 
Seniors Powell Connor and Kyle Haskins and sophomore Stefano Bottini all finished with a goal and assist for the Golden Griffins (12-19-4), who advanced to the quarterfinal round of the AHA Postseason with Saturday's victory. Graduate student Erik Urbank and senior Griffin Loughran also found the back of the net. Senior netminder David Fessenden finished with 22 saves.
 
Keanan Stewart and Will Margel accounted for the two goals for the Lakers (9-22-4). Owen Say recorded 25 saves between the pipes for the visitors.
 
Urbank gave Canisius a 1-0 lead at the 11:54 mark of the first period when he jammed home a loose puck after the initial shot attempt from sophomore Stefano Bottini was turned aside by Say. Loughran doubled the Griffs advantage to 2-0 with a little more than two minutes to play in the opening frame, finishing off a goalmouth scramble by jamming home the puck to put Canisius up by a pair. Canisius added two tallies late in the second period to stretch its lead to 4-0. Haskins scored with 15:47 elapsed in the middle frame on an unassisted effort that saw him grab a turnover deep in the Mercyhurst zone before beating Say with a wrist shot to the blocker side to make it 3-0 before Bottini snuck a wrist shot past Say on the blocker side while on the rush to give the Griffs a 4-0 cushion. Mercyhurst struck for a pair of power-play tallies in the third to cut the deficit in half, 4-2. Stewart got the Lakers on the board just past the midway point of the third, putting home a backdoor feed from Boris Skalos while Margel struck at the 17:14 mark when he fired Garett Dahm's cross-ice feed past Fessenden from the right face-off circle.
 
That would be as close as the Lakers got, as Connor closed out the scoring on an empty-net tally with less than two minutes remaining for his first collegiate tally, securing the Griffs victory. POSTGAME COMMENTS GAME NOTES
• With the win on Saturday, head coach Trevor Large picked the 100th victory of his coaching career, becoming just the third head coach in program history to record 100 victories behind the bench for the Griffs, joining Dave Smith and Brian Cavanaugh. 
• Saturday's game served as the 10th postseason meeting between Canisius and Mercyhurst. The Griffs' win on Saturday evened the postseason series between the two programs at 5-5.
• Canisius outshot Mercyhurst by a 30-24 margin for the contest, highlighted by a 26-12 edge in the first two periods.
• The Griffs were 0-for-1 on the power play while Mercyhurst was 2-for-7.
• Canisius improved to 7-0-2 this season when holding a lead heading into the third. The Griffs also moved to 9-1-0 on the campaign when scoring four goals or more in a contest.  
• Urbank recorded multiple points in a game for the third time this season with his two-point performance on Saturday.
• In addition to scoring his first career goal on Saturday, Connor recorded his first multiple-point performance with his two-point effort.
• Bottini notched multiple points in a game for the second time this season with his two-point effort on Saturday.
• With his first-period goal on Saturday, Loughran now sits just one point away from reaching the 100-point milestone for his career.
• Fessenden picked up his third assist of the season as he record the lone helper on Bottini's second-perio
 
UP NEXT
Canisius advances to the quarterfinal round of the AHA Postseason, where it will face No. 2 seed Holy Cross in a best-of-three series March 8-10 at the Hart Center in Worcester, Mass.
 
Game times and ticket information will be released once it becomes available.
 
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