(Canton, N.Y.)- The SUNY Canton men's ice hockey team dominated the Canisius College Golden Griffins Friday night in a convincing 7-1 win in Canton.

The Roos were playing their first home game since winning the Terry Martin / Alumni Classic at the end of November and received three goals from freshman forward Dave Schneider (Indianapolis, Ind.) and a 22-save performance from freshman Morgan Barr (Almonte, Ontario) to improve to 22-2-3 overall and 5-2 in the Eastern Collegiate Hockey League.

SUNY Canton outshot the Griffs 58-23 including an 18-6 advantage in the first period as they built a 3-0 lead.  SUNY Canton generated five shots in the first five minutes of the game and held the Griffs without a shot on goal through the first eight minutes. 

Schneider put the Roos ahead 1-0 with his first goal midway through the opening stanza.  After a Griffs turnover deep in the zone, freshman Rick Cigile (Canton, Mich.) blasted a shot from the top of the left circle that was stopped by Canisius goalie Josh LiPuma.  Several players took a whack at the rebound before Schneider was able to tuck home the puck for the game's first score.  Three minutes later the lead increased to 2-0 when freshman defenseman Sean Gallagher (Sandwich, Mass.) gathered in a loose puck high in the slot, skated to the left side and sent a wrister past the blocker of LiPuma.  The final goal of the period came with 3:10 on the clock when freshman defenseman J.R. Lafferty (Williamstown, N.J.) scored unassisted on a hard, low slap shot from just inside the blue line and the score stood at 3-0 after one period.

The Roos tallied two quick goals less than a minute apart early in the second period to surge ahead 5-0.  With the Roos on a power play following an interference penalty by the Griffs, Schneider connected on his second goal at the 4:29 mark as he followed another hard shot by Lafferty.  The lead stretched to 5-0 at the 5:20 mark when the Roos scored another goal off a rebound, this time by freshman forward Thomas Freeman (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) who followed a shot by senior forward Dan Cibelli (Liverpool, N.Y.).  Schneider then stretched the lead to 6-0 with his third goal at the 12:57 mark.  Junior forward Corey Frizell (Orleans, N.Y.) made a nice rush down the right wing and slid a pass to Schneider who faked LiPuma to the ice and then flipped the puck over his blocker prompting several fans to toss their hats onto the ice to celebrate his third hat trick this season.

The Roos had a terrific opportunity late in the period to score again when they found themselves on a 5 on 3 power play.  After just a few seconds though, the Roos were whistled for two quick penalties negating the advantage and giving it right back to the Griffs who had their own two-man edge for nearly a minute.  After the Roos killed off one of the penalties, the Griffs finally solved Barr when Mike Mangone scored with 3:04 left in the period. 

Prior to the start of the third preiod Cibelli was honored for scoring the 100th point of his career last Friday against Mercyhurst College.  Then senior forward Rob Liggio (Canton, N.Y.) capped off the Roos scoring at the 5:57 mark of the final period.  Frizell started the play forcing another Griffs turnover that created a one-on-one play against LiPuma.  Frizell's slap shot was stopped by the goalie but a teammate chasing the play collided with him and left the net wide open for Liggio to poke in the puck for the final goal of the night. 

LiPuma had a busy night finishing with 51 saves.

The Roos play their final five regular season game at home starting next weekend with games against Niagara University on Feb. 3 and 4 and a single game with the University of Rochester on Feb. 5.  They'll then host the ECHL tournament Feb. 24-26.