Canisius coasts past St. Francis in Catholic School championship

by Charles Roberts, Metro Source

The only thing holy about Sunday’s Catholic School Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation championship game was the St. Francis defense, as Canisius sliced it early and often, en route to an easy 4-0 victory Sunday at HSBC Arena.

Senior forward Paul Steinig opened the scoring at in the first period with a ripper from the point.

Defenseman Sean McHugh would follow suit with a deep blast of his own not too much later, and Canisius never looked back.

“I think we got up on them and that was our game plan to take it to them early to kind of make them go away and they did a good job of that,” said Canisius head coach Terry Miller.

Adding to the scoring were junior Alex Barilec and senior Colin Burns.

“I think last year went a long way and again, I think the program overall has come a long way to the point where we’re expected, we’re supposed to win now, whereas three or four years ago, we were hoping and praying to win,” Miller said. “It’s the norm now at Canisius to win.”

Although he was not exactly blistered with shots, senior goaltender Dylan Arnold was voted as the game’s most valuable player, in large part to holding the opponent to a goose egg in the scoring department.

Miller congratulated his senior net-minder as he came off the ice, calling him, “the Vezena winner.”

“It was a little unexpected, because we were all over them and I didn’t face many shots,” Arnold said of his MVP trophy. “There were long periods of time they’d go without shots, but then they’d get a surge and I’d just have to stay focused to keep us in it.”

Canisius moves on to the Catholic state championship in Long Island on Sunday against an opponent yet to be determined.