Crowley scores twice in win; Tigers gear up for Canisius

An early wakeup call didn’t affect Michael Crowley at the rest of his Timon teammates.

Crowley scored twice and Timon built a 3-0 leading before holding on for a 4-1 win over Nichols in the Catholic play-in game played Friday morning at Dann Memorial Rink on the campus of Nichols School.

It took Timon awhile to get their feet moving and it showed as Nichols took the play to the Tigers early in the contest. But, Nichols couldn’t get anything past Dan Fulton as the sophomore played his best game of the year making some big saves throughout the game.

Timon would finally get on the board first, late in the first, as Brian Sullivan skated over the Nichols blueline and fired a wrist shot high to the blocker side that eluded goaltender Max Rosenthal.

Timon would make it a 2-0 game early in the second when Crowley picked up the loose puck at his own blueline and quickly turned it into a 2-on-1. He then fed a wonderful pass to Zach Evancho who fired the puck in the net. The lead would go to 3-0 nothing when Justin Nelson left a great drop pass to Crowley, who then fired it past Rosenthal.

Nichols would cut the lead to 3-1 and had a golden opportunity to get back in the game with just over two-minutes remaining in regulation, but could not convert on a key 5-on-3 power play.

Timon put the game away when Crowley scored in the open net with just under a minute to go.

Next up for the Tigers is top seed Canisius at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22 at the Amherst Pepsi Center. Canisius defeated Timon 8-4 and 6-0 earlier this year.

The underdog Tigers are looking to crash the party for the second year in a row. Last season, Timon defeated St. Joe’s 3-2 in overtime to advance to the Catholic final.