NIAGARA UNIV, N.Y. – The Niagara men’s hockey team earned its first win of the season at Dwyer Arena and its second-consecutive victory overall with Friday night’s 3-1 win over the Army Black Knights.
The Purple Eagles (2-9-0; 2-5-0 AHA) had two players playing in their first action of the season and both found their way onto the scoresheet. TJ Sarcona scored a slick goal 12:35 into the first period to give his team the 2-0 lead. Stanislav Dzakhov, who was playing in his first collegiate game, collected the primary assist on Robert Angiolella’s second period goal that gave NU the 3-1 lead with less than six minutes to go in the period. The goal was Angiolella’s fourth point in the last two games.
“That was a full 60-minute, Division I win,” head coach Dave Burkholder said. “I thought we won the first. They clearly were better than us in the second. They out worked us and hit us, but we scored that big goal so it didn’t feel like we lost that period. Our defensive zone was terrific, Teich [Jackson Teichroeb] was great and overall it was a great win for us.”
Teichroeb was back between the pipes and faced 34 shots and turned away all but one of them for his second win of the year. Army (3-7-2; 3-5-2 AHA) scored its lone goal of the contest on the power-play with 2:29 left in the first to make it a 2-1 contest.
Niagara wasted nearly no time and were first on the board with Stephen Pietrobon’s second goal of the season that came just 2:01 into the contest. Kevin Albers and Sam Alfieri collected the helpers on the tally. Nine players got on the scoresheet for the Purple and White as Isaac Kohls and Hugo Turcotte had the assists on Sarcona’s goal while Albin Karlsson added the secondary assist on Angolella’s goal. Turcotte’s assist gives him the team lead with six points so far this season.
