This weekend, the Purple Eagles hockey team closes out the 2016 calendar year with a pair of road games against the Air Force Falcons.
After playing four games against each other the last two seasons, Niagara and Air Force square off at Cadet Ice Arena for the lone two matchups this season. Niagara has played more games against Air Force (64) than any other team in college hockey, leading the all-time series 33-26-5.
The Purple Eagles and Falcons will face off at 9:05 p.m. on Friday before concluding the season series Saturday at 7:05 p.m. Jeremy White has the play-by-play on 1340 AM WLVL for the two-game set, and both games will be live streamed on AtlanticHockey.tv.
After the series at Air Force, Niagara is off for three weeks before returning to action at Holy Cross on Jan. 6 at 7:05 p.m. The next chance to catch the Purple Eagles at Dwyer Arena is Jan. 13 at 7:05 p.m. against the Bentley Falcons, the first of six home games in the month of January.
Stanislav Dzakhov enters the Air Force series on a three-game goal scoring streak, the longest by a Purple Eagle this season. Most recently, Dzakhov tallied one goal and one assist against RIT on Dec. 3. He scored power-play goals for Niagara on Nov. 26 at AIC and Dec. 2 versus RIT. The junior from Vladikavkaz, Russia has career-highs with five goals and two power-play goals this year. Dzakhov also has four assists, giving him nine points in 12 games. His average of 0.75 points per game played leads the Purple Eagles. In eight conference games this season, Dzakhov has seven points (4+3) and a plus-2 rating.
Entering the weekend, the Purple Eagles rank second in Atlantic Hockey with 14.56 blocked shots per game, trailing only Army. Vinny Muto ranks second in Atlantic Hockey with 33 blocked shots, while Tyler Hayes is tied for seventh with 27. Hayes leads all AHC freshmen and is tied for 11th nationally among rookies in the category. TJ Sarcona is tied for second among Atlantic Hockey forwards with 21 blocked shots, while Nick Farmer is tied for ninth with 13.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
