NIAGARA UNIV. — The Niagara Purple Eagles hockey team played its final home game of the 2016-17 season on Saturday night, hosting the Robert Morris Colonials for Senior Night. Stanislav Dzakhov scored a power-play goal for the Purple Eagles and Derek Brown tallied the team’s fourth shorthanded goal of the year, but the Colonials pulled away for the 6-2 win at Dwyer Arena.
Following the results of Atlantic Hockey play tonight, the RIT Tigers secured the sixth seed in the conference standings to end the regular season. Niagara will head to the Gene Polisseni Center in Rochester for the first round of the AHC postseason, beginning on Friday, March 3.
Prior to Saturday’s game at Dwyer Arena, seniors Vinny Muto, Kevin Patterson, Stephen Pietrobon, TJ Sarcona, and Jackson Teichroeb were honored with a Senior Night ceremony during their final home game as Purple Eagles. Timmy Moore opened the scoring with a goal for Robert Morris eight minutes into the contest, but Stanislav Dzakhov evened the score at one just over three minutes later. Pietrobon and Niko Kovachis worked the puck around the top of the power-play set to give Dzakhov a one-timer, and he ripped his shot low past Robert Morris goaltender Dalton Izyk. As the first period came to a close, the game looked to be tied heading into the intermission but the Colonials’ Daniel Leavens broke in on a shorthanded two-on-one chance with Brady Ferguson, and Ferguson beat Jackson Teichroeb to the back door to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes. All three goals scored in the second period occurred on Robert Morris power plays. The Colonials scored a pair of goals on man advantages to make it 4-1 midway through the middle stanza. At the 12:40 mark, Derek Brown drew Niagara within two with a shorthanded tally. Sean King fed a pass to Brown who was crashing the net hard, and Brown stuffed the puck into the goal past Izyk. The goal was initially disallowed after the net came off its moorings, but the referees reversed their call upon further review. Robert Morris was able to hold off Niagara after Brown’s goal, adding a power-play tally from Eric Israel at the 12:24 mark followed by a Ben Robillard goal 1:16 later for the 6-2 final score.
Niagara and Robert Morris head back to Pittsburgh for the final game of the regular season, set to be played at Heinz Field. Opening faceoff is slated for 7:05 p.m. Steve Warzala has the radio play-by-play on 1340 AM WLVL, and a live stream of the game is available through AtlanticHockey.tv.
Admission to the game at the home of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers is free, and nearby parking will be $7.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT