ROCHESTER — The Niagara Purple Eagles hockey team opens the Atlantic Hockey postseason this weekend against the sixth-seeded RIT Tigers. Niagara and RIT will play a best-of-three series to determine a winner of this first round playoff matchup.
The first two games are slated for 7:05 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Should the two teams split those two matchups, a deciding third game will be played Sunday at 7:05 p.m. All three games will be at RIT’s home rink, the Gene Polisseni Center. The winner of this series moves on to a best-of-three series on March 10-12 in the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals. Should Niagara defeat RIT in this first-round series, the Purple Eagles would face off with crosstown rival Canisius in the quarterfinals, as the Golden Griffins secured the first seed in the conference.
Paul Hamilton will have the radio play-by-play on 1340 AM WLVL on Friday night, and Jeremy White will be calling the matchups on Saturday and Sunday. All three games in the weekend series will be televised regionally on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel. Gene Battaglia and John DiTullio will be calling the games on television along with reporter Stacey Pengsen. In Buffalo, Friday night’s game can be seen on channel 87, while Saturday and Sunday will be broadcast on channels 52 and 323. Fans outside of the Buffalo market can watch a live stream of all games through Stretch Internet here. A single game costs $12 to view, while full tournament packages are available at $35.
Niagara senior goaltender Jackson Teichroeb has played his best hockey in the postseason throughout his collegiate career. Teichroeb is 7-7 in 14 career postseason games with a 2.26 goals-against average, .933 save percentage, and one shutout. In three games last season against Canisius in the Atlantic Hockey first round, Teichroeb set playoff career-high markers with a 2.05 goals-against average and .932 save percentage, allowing just six goals on 88 shots. Teichroeb set a career-high with 58 saves on March 7, 2015 at Holy Cross in a 2-1 triple-overtime loss. He came back the next night and helped Niagara to a series-clinching 5-3 win with 49 saves.
TJ Sarcona leads current Niagara skaters in career playoff scoring, accumulating seven assists in 14 career postseason games. His best playoffs came in 2013-14, when he racked up four assists in six games as Niagara advanced to the AHC semifinals. Four of Niagara’s next five leading career playoff scorers are defensemen: Kevin Patterson (3+2 in 14 GP), Keegan Harper (2+2 in 5 GP), Vinny Muto (1+3 in 13 GP) and Larry Smith (1+3 in 8 GP). In Niagara’s first-round matchup last season, Stanislav Dzakhov led the team in a three-game series against Canisius with two points (1+1).
Niagara and RIT have faced off three times before in the Atlantic Hockey postseason. RIT defeated Niagara 2-1 in overtime in the first playoff game between these two teams, an AHC semifinal matchup at Blue Cross Arena on March 16, 2012. In the 2013 AHC quarterfinals at Dwyer Arena, Niagara secured wins of 3-2 and 2-1 (OT) to advance to Blue Cross Arena. The 2012-13 AHC regular season champions, Niagara was defeated in the semifinals by Canisius, but earned the first-ever at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament by an Atlantic Hockey team.
RIT enters the Atlantic Hockey postseason as the sixth overall seed after winning a three-way tiebreaker against the Mercyhurst Lakers and Bentley Falcons. All three teams finished with 26 points. The two-time defending Atlantic Hockey champions, RIT was picked to finish first in in the AHC Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Niagara holds a 15-9-12 record all-time against the Tigers in 36 matchups. The Purple Eagles are 1-2-1 at RIT’s new home arena, the Gene Polisseni Center, which opened in 2014. RIT won both of its matchups with Niagara at Dwyer Arena this season, earning victories by scores of 7-1 and 6-2 on Dec. 2 and 3, 2016. Sophomore Erik Brown leads the Tigers with 15 goals and 26 points. Six of RIT’s 10 leading scorers are underclassmen, led by Brown, Gabe Valenzuela (20 points) and Liam Kerins (20 points). Senior goaltender Mike Rotolo has started 32 of 34 games this year, going 13-19-1 with a 2.66 GAA, .902 SV% and one shutout.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
