Army Falls to Canisius in AHA Semifinals

Friday, March 19

Springfield, MA

7 PM

Army West Point

15-6-1

Canisius

11-5-0

OT 1

Canisius

Army West Point

Army Falls to Canisius in AHA Semifinals

March 19, 2021 | Hockey

Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Canisius scored with 6:37 left in overtime to defeat the Army West Point hockey team, 4-3, in the Atlantic Hockey Semifinals at the MassMutual Center on Friday night.

The Black Knights had their 13-game unbeaten streak come to end.

"You never have an opportunity to prepare for the end of the season because it just happens and that's what happened to us tonight," head coach Brian Riley said. "I'm not going to lie, it's tough. You never know when you'll get in this situation and our guys just had so much confidence because of what they were able to accomplish this season."

Army took the first lead of the game with Jake Felker scoring his third of the season with 4:54 on the clock in the first frame. Thomas Farrell shot the puck around the boards to Matt Berkovitz. He slid the puck to an open Felker in the slot and he didn't miss the net for the 1-0 lead.

The Griffs took a 2-1 lead in the second period with two goals coming 46 seconds apart with one scored on the power play. Simon Gravel evened the score with a partial breakaway tally and then Mitchell Martan slipped the puck past Kozlowski during a scrum in front on the man advantage.

Colin Bilek fired one off the post late in the frame, but Canisius took the one-goal lead into the second intermission.

The Black Knights tied the game up less than two minutes into the third with Farrell cleaning up the puck in front after a turnover by Canisius to even the score at 2-2.

Berkovitz chose a great time to tally his first of the season with a laser of a one-timer from the left circle to give Army the 3-2 lead with 10:04 on the clock. Lincoln Hatten dug the puck out from behind the goal and fed Berkovitz for the score.

Canisius fired back just over four minutes later to regain the advantage with a power play goal from Max Kouznetsov and the game was tied for the third time with 5:53 left in regulation.

The Golden Griffs got the gamewinner with J.D. Pogue scoring to send Canisius to the championship game.

Trevin Kozlowski finished with 27 saves in net and Army was 0-for-2 on the power play, while Canisius went 2-for-5 with the man advantage.

"For our guys this is it," Riley said. "There's no opportunity to come back for a fifth year, they're not gonna play professional hockey and in months they're going to go out and become officers in the U.S. Army and lead this nation's sons and daughters. To see them go from freshmen to seniors and develop into the leaders they became and the officers they will become is pretty special. But it's really sad to see the pain they're feeling right now."