By: Peter Neville, Assistant Sports Editor.
Canisius hockey sits at 7–5–2 in AHA play, picking up two wins against RIT this past weekend as they march toward the end of the season.
In the series against the Tigers, Canisius comfortably won both games by a final score of 5–2, picking up its second sweep in a series against an AHA opponent this season. On Friday, freshman Dominic Payne led the way for Canisius, tallying two goals and two assists, both of which were career highs. Payne gave all the credit to his teammates for his goals, saying, “Honestly, I got set up twice pretty nice, I didn’t have to really work too hard for those. But I think the boys battled really hard tonight, and I'm proud of the group.”
On Saturday, it was the veterans who led the way for Canisius, with senior Alton McDermott notching a goal and two assists alongside graduate student Jackson Decker’s two assists to help close out Canisius’ first series of 2025.
After the matchup against Robert Morris on Jan. 14 was postponed due to inclement weather, Canisius traveled to University Park to take on Penn State in a two-game non-conference set.
In the first game, a rough second period made the difference as the Nittany Lions tacked on three goals scored by Danny Dzhaniyev and Aiden Fink, who – after scoring two goals in the second period – would go on to complete his hat trick with just under two minutes remaining when he scored on the empty net to make it 4–0. Similar to their previous performance against ranked Michigan State earlier in the year, Canisius played much better in Game Two against Penn State. After once again allowing three goals in a period in the first period, Canisius battled back – scoring in each of the next two periods – but still fell short, losing 3–2.
Next up Canisius takes on American International, who sit in ninth place in Atlantic Hockey so far, going 5–11–0 in conference play. Last season against the Yellow Jackets, Canisius split their season-series-winning Game One 3–2 before dropping the second game 6–1. The puck drops in both games at 1 p.m. this weekend.
Photo Courtesy of Chloe Breen