NIAGARA UNIV. — In the second game of this season’s Battle of the Bridge, the Niagara Purple Eagles hockey team fell by a final score of 5-2 to the Canisius Golden Griffins Tuesday night at Dwyer Arena. Kris Spriggs and Sam Rennaker each had a goal and Jackson Teichroeb made 27 saves in net, but Niagara was unable to score on their seven power-play chances while Canisius went 2-for-5 with the man advantage.
Niagara was shorthanded early when Sam Rennaker was called for cross-checking just 1:32 into the first period. Just 32 seconds later, Canisius executed on the power play as Casey Jerry set up Nick Hutchison for his sixth power-play goal of the season, putting the Golden Griffins up 1-0. Niagara tied the game on a set play off of a faceoff at 5:56 of the first. Nick Farmer won the draw back to Kris Spriggs, who ripped his seventh goal of the season past Canisius goaltender Charles Williams to tie the game 1-1. Rennaker would redeem himself for the early penalty by giving the Purple Eagles their first lead of the game at 7:34, converting on a nice feed from Stephen Pietrobon to put Niagara in front 2-1. Canisius tied the game once again just over five minutes later, as David Parrottino tipped a shot from Alex Jaeckle past Jackson Teichroeb. The 2-2 score would hold through the first intermission. As both teams were each killing off a penalty to start the second period, Canisius’ Casey Jerry found a breakaway shot that bounced off Teichroeb and landed in the crease just in front of the line, leaving Vinny Muto to make a great defensive play to keep the game tied. In the last seconds of a Niagara penalty kill, Cameron Heath was able to give the Golden Griffins their first lead of the game at the 15:10 mark of the second. Heath directed the puck to the front of the Niagara goal, and the eventual game-winning goal glanced past Teichroeb off the skate of a Purple Eagles defender. A five-minute penalty and game misconduct on Rennaker had the Purple Eagles shorthanded at the end of the second period and at the beginning of the third. The Purple Eagles responded strong to start the third period and killed the penalty. The Golden Griffins were able to hold off the Purple Eagles in the third period, eventually extending their lead to two with Parrottino’s second goal of the night with 3:58 to play. An empty-net goal scored by Jesse Pereira in the final minute sealed the scoring at 5-2.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
