NIAGARA UNIV. — With a 4-1 win over the two-time defending Atlantic Hockey champion RIT Tigers on Sunday night, the Niagara Purple Eagles hockey team is now preparing for a best-of-three showdown with the Canisius Golden Griffins in the Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals on March 10-12. All three games of the quarterfinals will be played at the KeyBank Rink at HARBORCENTER in Buffalo.
Niagara and Canisius will open the best-of-three series Friday, March 10 at 7:35 p.m. Game Two is slated for an 8:05 p.m. faceoff on Saturday, March 11, and if a decisive Game Three is needed, that game will start at 6:35 p.m. on Sunday, March 12.
The Niagara University Athletics ticket office is now accepting orders for tickets. Fans who contact the Niagara ticket office at (716) 286-TIXX (8499) by Wednesday, March 8 at 2 p.m. can purchase single-game tickets for $7 each. The Department of Athletics will be purchasing the first 100 student tickets, which can then be ordered free of charge by Wednesday’s deadline. Subsequent student tickets will be $5.
Tickets can be picked up Thursday and Friday at the Dwyer Arena ticket office. Fans who wish to purchase tickets after 2 p.m. on Wednesday can do so for $10 each.
Since moving to Atlantic Hockey for the 2010-11 campaign, Niagara has now advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Atlantic Hockey tournament five out of seven seasons. The Purple Eagles have advanced to the conference semifinals three times in that span, while earning the conference’s first-ever at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament in 2013.
This quarterfinal matchup marks the second consecutive season Niagara and Canisius are pitted against each other in the postseason. The Purple Eagles won 3-2 in the first game of an Atlantic Hockey First Round contest at Canisius last season, but the Golden Griffins secured two wins by scores of 1-0 and 4-1 to take the series.
Canisius finished the regular season in first place in Atlantic Hockey, going 18-4-6 in conference play and 19-10-7. Niagara holds a 21-19-7 lead in 47 games in the all-time series against the Golden Griffins.