BUFFALO — The Niagara Purple Eagles hockey team and the Canisius Golden Griffins clashed on Friday night in the first game of the best-of-three Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal series at the KeyBank Rink at HARBORCENTER. Jackson Teichroeb continued his strong postseason play with 36 saves, but Canisius held the Niagara offense off the board as the Purple Eagles fell 3-0.
Niagara now trails 1-0 in the series and must win in Game Two at 8:05 p.m. Saturday to continue the series. A decisive third game, if necessary, is slated for 6:35 p.m. Sunday.
In the first period, Jackson Teichroeb made 10 saves, but Canisius took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. At the 14:57 mark, Jimmy Mazza put home a power-play goal for Canisius after Niko Kovachis was called for tripping. Niagara’s best chance of the period came with just over seven minutes left in the first, as Stanislav Dzakhov nearly ripped a one-time shot home glove-side on the man advantage. After failing to convert on an early second-period power play, Niagara fell behind 2-0 as Canisius had multiple chances on a loose puck in front of Teichroeb and David Parrottino’s shot richocheted in off of Dylan McLaughlin to double the Golden Griffins’ lead. The Purple Eagles had multiple chances from the forward line of Dzakhov, Sam Rennaker, and Johnny Curran, but failed to beat Canisius goaltender Charles Williams and entered the second intermission down 2-0. 1:48 into the third period, Canisius made scored the final goal of the evening. Off a turnover in the high slot of the Niagara zone, Felix Chamberland found Nick Hutchison off to the right of the Niagara goal for a one-timer that Teichroeb could not reach in time. With Sean King in the box for roughing 7:42 into the third, Niagara had a pair of shorthanded two-on-one chances, but could not find the back of the net on either. Nicolas Carrier fed TJ Sarcona with a pass that was redirected wide, and then Dzakhov took a shot breaking in with Rennaker that sailed high over the glove side. Teichroeb made 17 stops in the third period to keep Niagara in the game, but the Purple Eagles failed to score on their eight third-period shots, dropping Game One by the score of 3-0.
Game Two at the KeyBank Rink at HARBORCENTER is Saturday night with opening faceoff slated for 8:05 p.m. Jeremy White has the play-by-play call on 1340 AM WLVL, and Kevin Sylvester and Randy Schultz will be calling the action as Time Warner Cable SportsChannel will be televising the game regionally on channels 52 and 323.