NIAGARA UNIV. — The Purple Eagles hockey team got two goals from sophomore forward Sam Rennaker and put a season-high 45 shots on goal, but came up on the losing end in the first of two games this weekend against the American International Yellow Jackets. Kris Spriggs opened Niagara’s scoring with a power-play tally, and Nicolas Carrier had two assists in a 7-3 Niagara loss to AIC Friday night at Dwyer Arena.
The Yellow Jackets opened the scoring 3:32 into the contest, as Andrew DeBrincat picked off a pass in the neutral zone and fed a pass up ice to Kyle Stephan, who sent a wrist shot over the glove of Joe O’Brien. Jared Pike made it 2-0 AIC seven minutes into the contest, redirecting a long point shot from Yellow Jackets defenseman Johnny Mueller. Niagara got on the board at the 8:51 mark of the first period. Noah Delmas handled the puck up the blue line and found Kris Spriggs open on the left wing. Spriggs’ shot sailed over the shoulder of AIC goaltender Zackarias Skog to make it a 2-1 game.
AIC made it 3-1 just over three minutes into the second period, but Niagara was quick to retaliate. Sam Rennaker picked up his first goal of the season at the 4:41 mark of the second, crashing the net hard and burying his own rebound after Skog stopped the initial shot. Florian had a pass bank in to the Niagara net off a Purple Eagles defender with 13:08 left in the second period. Rennaker scored his second of the night off a one-time opportunity set up by Stephen Pietrobon and Stanislav Dzakhov at the 14:30 mark, but AIC came back 57 seconds later as Pike’s second of the night reestablished the two-goal lead. Defensemen Nicolas Luka and Patrik Demel tacked on power-play goals for the Yellow Jackets for the 7-3 final score.
Niagara and AIC conclude the four-game season series Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. right back at Dwyer Arena. Jeremy White has the radio call on 1340 AM WLVL, and the game will be televised locally on LCTV (Ch. 20).
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