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BUFFALO — The Niagara Purple Eagles hockey team turned in one of its best efforts of a strong 2017 postseason on Saturday night against the Canisius Golden Griffins at the KeyBank Rink at HARBORCENTER. Trailing 1-0 in the third period, Niagara got a 5-on-3 power-play goal from senior defenseman Vinny Muto to tie the game with 12:06 to play. In the closing minutes, however, Canisius reclaimed the lead on a power play of their own, and Niagara dropped Game Two by a final score of 2-1 in the Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals.
Senior goaltender Jackson Teichroeb made 32 saves to lead the Purple Eagles, yielding only a pair of power-play tallies in the third period. Teichroeb ends his four-year Niagara career ranked second in program history with 2,854 saves, third with seven shutouts, third with 105 games played, and tied for fourth with a .902 save percentage.
After defeating the two-time defending champion RIT Tigers in three games in the Atlantic Hockey First Round from March 3-5, the Purple Eagles played two strong games against the AHC’s top-seeded Golden Griffins, but fell two games to none in the best of three series.
Both goaltenders, Niagara’s Jackson Teichroeb and Canisius’ Charles Williams were perfect through 40 minutes of play. Teichroeb made 20 saves throughout the first two periods to Williams’ 16.
Teichroeb highlighted the first period with a strong breakaway stop against Canisius’ Matt McLeod just past the 15-minute mark. Shortly after that, Nicolas Carrier broke loose on a breakaway of his own for Niagara and was stoned by Williams.
Nine minutes into the second period, Stanislav Dzakhov found a 2-on-1 chance rushing in with Johnny Curran but was turned away. The Purple Eagles also came up empty as Carrier had another chance all alone with 3:30 to go to the second intermission, as Niko Kovachis forced a turnover at the Canisius blue line and found Carrier alone in front of Williams. The freshman from Quebec attempted to place the puck five-hole past Williams, but the Golden Griffins’ netminder closed the door.
Canisius scored the game’s first goal at the 3:38 mark of the third period. Breaking in on a 3-on-2 chance, Felix Chamberland completed a passing play across the slot for the game’s first goal. After a pair of interference calls to Canisius, Vinny Muto cashed in on a brief 5-on-3 chance to tie the game. Curran fed Muto at the point and senior walked in to the high slot, patiently waiting for an open shot before ripping a wrister bar-down over the glove of Williams to make it 1-1. Curran and Keegan Harper had a pair of chances on the second part of the 5-on-3 to give Niagara the lead, but could not find the back of the net. The Purple Eagles were sent to the penalty kill with 2:54 to play on a tripping penalty by Keegan Harper. Niagara came close to killing the penalty, but Canisius scored the game-winning goal with 1:15 left in regulation as Ryan Schmelzer redirected Jimmy Mazza’s point shot. Teichroeb was pulled in favor of the extra attacker in the final minute, but Niagara could not tie the game for a second time, falling 2-1 in Game Two and 2-0 in the Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinal series.
Niagara Head coach David Burkholder said, “We had a lot of guys max out tonight which was great. It was a great college hockey game. We had a couple of good pushes throughout the game. I thought Vinny as the game wore on was unbelievable. Obviously Teichs had a great weekend, it’s too bad we didn’t get him more support again, but certainly he gave us a chance to take the win.”
Vinny Muto’s power-play goal gave him his sixth goal of the season, his best single-season mark at Niagara. It was also the 50th point of his career in his 136th game as a Purple Eagle. Jackson Teichroeb’s 32 saves gave him 30 or more saves in four out of six games to close the 2016-17 season.
Teichroeb ends his four-year Niagara career ranked second in program history with 2,854 saves, third with seven shutouts, third with 105 games played, and tied for fourth with a .902 save percentage. Teichroeb posted a 3.03 goals-against average and .925 save percentage this postseason, giving him a career playoff goals-against average of 2.44 and save percentage of .931. With assists on Muto’s goal, sophomore forwards Johnny Curran and Sam Rennaker closed the 2017 postseason as Niagara’s leading scorers with four points each in five games. Niagara put 26 shots on goal Saturday night at Canisius, its most in a game this postseason. The Purple Eagles entered Saturday’s contest 3-2-1 when allowing two goals or less in a game this season. Niagara is now 4-3 when facing elimination in Atlantic Hockey best-of-three play and 6-5 all-time in Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinal matchups. In an injury-riddled season, Niagara closed the season with 234 man-games lost to injury in 38 games played. The Game Two loss brought the collegiate careers of Niagara’s five seniors to an end: Muto, Teichroeb, Kevin Patterson, Stephen Pietrobon, and TJ Sarcona.
