Ice Hockey routs Canisius to earn series split

BUFFALO, New York - The American International College ice hockey team channeled its frustration from the previous night's defeat into one of its best efforts of the year, scoring a half-dozen goals in a 6-1 win over Canisius University on Saturday, December 16 in Atlantic Hockey Association play.

AIC improves to 11-8-0 overall and 8-4-0-0-1-0 in the AHA.

The Yellow Jackets turned in a dominant first period, outshooting the Golden Griffins 17-2, but it looked like the frame was destined to end scoreless when AIC pounced late. Nico Somerville held the puck in at the blue line and fired it into the right wing corner. Oscar Geschwind dug it out and threw it into the slot, where Alfred Lindberg caught the pass, stepped in, and wristed home his fifth of the year at 18:55.

The second period saw a quicker strike from AIC. Grayson Dietrich stole the puck at the top of the slot in the AIC zone and passed to Matt Rickard, who looked up and saw Alexander Malinowski behind the Canisius defense. He fired a perfect pass to the far blue line, connecting in stride with Malinowski, who beat Ethan Robertson for his sixth of the season at 6:55.

The game bogged down from there with penalties; both teams were called for four in the frame, including a major on each team, and AIC had to kill a 2:00 5-on-3, which they did with Nils Wallstrom making several key saves to keep momentum in AIC's favor. The Canisius major penalty carried into the third, and AIC capitalized on a tic-tac-toe play as Malinowski, Dustin Manz, and Lindberg went center to right to left on a rush, with Lindberg tapping in his sixth of the year at 2:00 on the left post.

Not content with three, Malinowski and Lindberg won a battle in the corner to set up John Lundy, who was wide open on the right side of the slot to blast home his team-high ninth of the year at 7:20, and then Manz stole the puck along the wall and found Malinowski wide open in the slot for his second of the game and seventh of the year at 8:47.

The Golden Griffins did break the shutout with a shorthanded strike, but AIC put the game completely on ice as Blake Wells answered with an unassisted shorthanded tally of his own at 12:15. That goal, his third of the year, was the last scoring of the day.

Wallstrom made 19 saves to earn his 10th win of the season, joining Stefano Durante '21 in becoming the second freshman goalkeeper to win 10 games for the Yellow Jackets in the Division I era.

AIC will break for the holiday and return to close out calendar year 2023 with a single game at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell on Saturday, December 30 at 4:05 p.m.