David Evans’ hat trick and Tim Sgroi’s two goals led the way as Canisius defeated Hamburg 7-3 Thursday night. The Crusaders expected a tough game against the Bulldogs, who have come together in their last few games, but they didn’t let Hamburg’s recent hot streak intimidate them.
“I thought it was gonna be a good game, but I knew we needed to work hard and bury our chances, and we ended up doing that,” Sgroi said. “I knew they’d been kind of hot, but so have we. And we’ve been playing hard and burying our chances.”
“We thought it was gonna be a battle, and it was for a while, and then we kind of pulled away at the end,” Evans said.
Evans started the scoring just 1:38 into the first period with the first of his three goals, and Canisius held the 1-0 lead through most of the first period. But with just less than six minutes to go, Hamburg’s Colin Bartoo tied the game at one. And with 1:29 to go in the first, James Wittmeyer gave Hamburg a 2-1 lead.
Before the second period, Canisius took some time to regroup and focus.
“We realized that we weren’t gonna lose this game; we just didn’t want to,” Evans said. “And we worked harder, battled back.”
Evans scored even earlier in the second period than he had in the first as he tied the game at two just 20 seconds in. Sgroi’s first goal came exactly a minute and a half later to give Canisius the lead once more. Sgroi added another goal later in the second, as did captain Matt Santora, and with just a couple minutes left in the second, the Crusaders had a 5-2 lead.
“It was nice to finally find the back of the net,” Sgroi said. “It’s kind of been a while, but me and my linemates have been clicking recently, so it was nice to get a high-scoring effort tonight.”
And then came Evans’ third goal with exactly a minute and a half left in the second period. The hat trick was a bit of a surprise to him.
“Usually I don’t get a hat trick; I stop at two, but something just happened today for me,” Evans said. “We worked hard, and my line gave me some good passes, and I buried a couple chances.”
Hamburg’s Owen Gonter scored late in the third, but Canisius’ John McMahon answered just a few minutes later to seal the 7-3 win. Canisius goaltender Ryan O’Donnell made 23 saves in the win, while Hamburg goalie Griffin Coppola made 21.
“It’s a good team win,” Sgroi said.
“It’s good for confidence boosting, momentum, going into the next couple games,” Evans said. And as they move forward from the high-scoring win, Evans hopes the Crusaders will carry that with them.
“Score a lot of goals,” he said.