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                         March 8, 2002

By James Zuhlke
Asst. Dir., Athletic Media Relations

The Army hockey squad picked up a 3-3 tie against visiting Canisius Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 2,670 fans on senior night at Tate Rink. The tie assures Army of the eighth seed in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference standings and a trip to Erie, Pa., Saturday night to face Mercyhurst.

Canisius’ James LeCuyler scored the game-tying goal 2:38 into the final period to pull the Ice Griffs even, and Black Knights’ senior goaltender Scott Hamilton made two acrobatic saves in the final seconds of regulation to force the overtime.

Army (11-17-6/9-11-6 MAAC) played its 11th overtime game of the season, finishing 1-4-6 in those contests. Canisius (14-16-4/13-9-4 MAAC) finishes in fifth place in the league standings.

Hamilton made 34 saves in all on the evening and recorded his 2,000th career save early in the second period. He now has 2,024 stops in his career, good for fourth place on Army’s all-time charts.

Junior Derek Hines and senior Nathan Mayfield scored in the first period for Army and senior Joe Dudek tallied on a breakaway in the second. Steve Birch and Todd Houston had the Ice Griffs’ other two goals. Canisius goalie Sean Weaver made 28 saves in net.

The first round of the MAAC tournament will take place Saturday at a time to be determined by the host school where Army faces top-seeded Mercyhurst. All the action of the playoffs can be heard on WBNR 1260 and WLNA 1420.