BUFFALO — The Niagara hockey team begins the four-game Battle of the Bridge series against the rival Canisius Golden Griffins on Tuesday night, the first of three games this week for the Purple Eagles. Niagara and Canisius face off at 7:35 p.m. Tusday from the KeyBank Rink at HARBORCENTER. The Purple Eagles play four of their final 10 regular-season games against Canisius.
Tuesday night’s game will be broadcast regionally on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel (Ch. 52/323) with Dave Miller and Chris Panek on the call. Jeremy White has the radio play-by-play live on 1340 AM WLVL.
The Battle of the Bridge is the annual all-sports series between Niagara University and Canisius College. Each of the four hockey games between Niagara and Canisius count for one point; ties give a half-point to each school. Canisius currently holds a 9-3 lead in this year’s Battle of the Bridge, entering Monday night’s men’s basketball matchup at the Gallagher Center. Niagara picked up a pair of points for a season sweep of two volleyball games, and the Purple Eagles men’s soccer team picked up one point in a draw against the Golden Griffins.
Freshman forward Kris Spriggs has taken control of Niagara’s team scoring lead, recording 12 points (6+6) in 21 games this season. Spriggs enters Tuesday’s contest at Canisius on a three-game point streak, scoring a goal in each of Niagara’s last three games and adding an assist in a 3-1 win over Bentley back on Jan. 14. Spriggs leads the Purple Eagles with three multiple-point games this season, tallying one goal and one assist versus Holy Cross (Oct. 8, 2016), at Union (Oct. 22, 2016) and versus Bentley (Jan. 14). A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Spriggs was named the Travel Team USA Rookie of the Week by Atlantic Hockey on Oct. 11, and he was also named Atlantic Hockey’s Rookie of the Month for October after leading conference freshmen with six points (2+4) in seven games during the first month of the 2016-17 campaign.
Senior defenseman and Niagara Falls native Vinny Muto has made significant contributions at both ends of the ice for the Purple Eagles this season. Muto leads Niagara defensemen in goals (three) and ranks second in points (nine). Muto has scored four points and fired 16 shots on goal over his last three games, tallying one goal and one assist versus Bentley (Jan. 14) and versus American International (Jan. 21). In the defensive zone, Muto is second among all Atlantic Hockey players in total blocked shots (51) and blocked shots per game (2.12), trailing only Sacred Heart’s Erlich Doerksen in both categories. The 51 blocked shots for Muto are a career high, after he recorded 50 in 37 games as a freshman in 2013-14. Muto is the only Niagara player to play in all 24 games this season.
The Niagara power play is 18-for-127 (14.2 percent) on the season, including a mark of 11-for-57 (19.3 percent) on home ice. The Purple Eagles have scored a power-play goal in four straight games, with Kris Spriggs (2+0), Vinny Muto (1+1), and Nicolas Carrier (1+1) each tallying two points on the man advantage in that time. Spriggs (2+3), Johnny Curran (3+2), and Noah Delmas (0+5) are tied for the team lead with five power-play points in the 2016-17 campaign. No Niagara player had more than four power-play points in the 2015-16 season. After scoring 12 power-play goals in 37 games last season, Niagara scored 14 in 18 games during the first half of the 2016-17 campaign.
Canisius enters Tuesday night’s matchup after sweeping the RIT Tigers in a home-and-home series last weekend, picking up a 3-1 road win on Jan. 20 and a 6-1 home win on Saturday. Niagara leads the all-time series against Canisius with a record of 21-15-4. Last season, Niagara played five games against Canisius for the first time in program history, including two regular-season games and a three-game first round playoff series. In the first round of last year’s Atlantic Hockey postseason, Niagara picked up a 3-2 win in the first game of the series, but Canisius came back the next two nights with wins of 1-0 and 4-1 to advance to the quarterfinals. Vinny Muto leads active Niagara skaters with five points, all assists, in nine career games against Canisius. Ryan Schmelzer (7+8) and Dylan McLaughlin (6+9) are tied for Canisius’ scoring lead this season with 15 points each. Nick Hutchison has a team-high nine goals. Charles Williams is 10-6-3 in goal for the Golden Griffins with a 1.95 goals-against average and .944 save percentage.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
