NIAGARA UNIV. — The Purple Eagles hockey team wraps up a four-game home stand this weekend with a pair of contests against the American International Yellow Jackets. The Purple Eagles will look to pick up where they left off last weekend, when the team picked up a 3-1 win over the Bentley Falcons on Jan. 14 following a 6-3 loss to open the weekend series.
Niagara and AIC start the two-game weekend series at 7:05 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20. That game can be seen throughout the Buffalo region on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel (Ch. 52/323) with Dave Miller and Mark Metzger calling the action. The 7:05 weekend finale on Saturday, Jan. 21 is Scout Night at Dwyer Arena, and fans in attendance can stay after the game for a postgame skate and autograph session with the team. Saturday’s contest can be seen on LCTV (Ch. 20). Jeremy White has the play-by-play call for both contests on 1340 AM WLVL.
After the Purple Eagles traveled to AIC for two games on Nov. 25 and 26, 2016, the Yellow Jackets come to Monteagle Ridge to complete the four-game season series this weekend. Niagara and AIC played to a scoreless tie in the first game of that series, the third 0-0 game in Purple Eagles program history. AIC closed the weekend with a 3-1 win, with Stanislav Dzakhov scoring the lone goal for Niagara. Niagara holds an 11-5-1 advantage in 17 games in the all-time series against AIC. AIC opened this week on Tuesday, Jan. 17 against the Army Black Knights. Army and AIC played a scoreless game until the closing minutes of the third period, when the Black Knights tallied a shorthanded goal and an empty-net insurance tally for the 2-0 win. The Yellow Jackets are led in scoring by a quartet of freshmen. Blake Christensen leads AIC with 17 points and is tied for tops on the team with seven goals and 10 assists. He is followed by Martin Mellberg (15 points), Hugo Reinhardt (13 points) and Dominik Florian (12 points). Alex Murray played in goal in AIC’s first two games against Niagara this season, making 41 stops on 42 shots on the weekend. Murray is 2-6-2 with a 3.34 goals-against average and .887 save percentage this season. He has split time in goal with freshman Zackarias Skog (3-7-4, 2.88, .909).
Niagara’s two January additions, forward Christian Cakebread and defenseman Andrew Pizzo, have made positive impressions in their first few games with the team. Cakebread tallied assists in both of Niagara’s games versus Bentley last weekend. He has three points in four games as a Purple Eagle and looks to extend a three-game point streak against AIC. Pizzo joined the Purple Eagles on Jan. 12 after starting the season with the Buffalo Jr. Sabres. He registered four shots on goal and a plus-1 rating in his first two games with the team last weekend versus Bentley.
Sophomore goaltender Joe O’Brien stopped 37 of 38 shots to lead Niagara to a 3-1 win over Bentley last Saturday, Jan. 14. Of the 37 saves by O’Brien, 19 came in the third period, and 11 came after Bentley made it a 3-1 game with 9:09 to play. In limited action this season, O’Brien has a 3.31 goals-against average and .915 save percentage. In two games since Jan. 1, O’Brien has a 1.51 goals-against average, a .957 save percentage, and 67 saves on 70 shots faced. Earlier this season, O’Brien made a career-high 46 saves in a loss at nationally-ranked Penn State on Nov. 4, 2016.
Niagara registered 37 and 30 shots on goal in its two games last weekend versus Bentley, averaging 33.5 shots per game after averaging 21.5 shots per game in the previous 10 games. The Purple Eagles average 31.7 shots on goal per game in their three wins, compared to 23.7 in their other 19 games.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
