NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – The Niagara men’s hockey team swept UConn with its second straight blank slate against its AHA opponent, dropping the Huskies, 5-0 on Saturday evening.
Giancarlo Iuorio continued his scoring streak with two tallies tonight to rack up his total to a team-leading 10 goals on the season. Ryan Murphy had a three-point night a goal and two helpers, while Jeff Hannan added two assists for the night and freshman Matt Chartrain contributed a goal and an assist.
NU goaltender Carsen Chubak continued his hot streak between the pipes, stopping 26 UConn looks on net for his second straight shutout, and third of the season.
“Carsen Chubak didn’t make a mistake all weekend and I thought our defensive zone coverage was great, especially five-one-five,” head coach David Burkholder said. “A majority of UConn’s good chances were on their powerplay. I was very happy with the effort. Our guys were paying the price, doing what it takes first and foremost defensively and as a result we scored our share of goals.”
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes of play, the Purple Eagles (4-2-3; 3-0-0 AHA) came out firing in the second stanza, netting a pair of scores to head into the final intermission with a two-goal cushion.
Murphy started the scoring for Niagara at the 10:20 mark. Iuorio fired a shot on Husky (0-4-1; 0-3-0 AHA) goaltender Garrett Bartus from inside the left circle that he could not secure and the rebound jumped out to the waiting Murphy who ripped home his third of the season from inside the slot.
It seemed like the teams would be headed into the final period with the Purps up by a single goal, but Niagara battled until the final seconds and saw its lead increase by another tally off the stick of Iuorio. The initial shot by Kevin Albers was lost in a scrum in front of the blue paint, but Iuorio slipped it underneath the pads of Bartus before the buzzer. The goal was Iuorio’s fourth in two nights and seventh of the season.
The Purple Eagles continued to find the back of the net in the final period of play, as Iuorio, Chartrain, and Isaac Kohls each tallied scores.
Iuorio started the third stanza with a powerply tally a little more than five minutes into play off a superb tic-tac-toe play between the Marc Zanette, Murphy and Iuorio line. Murphy began the play with a cross-ice feed to Zanette in the left circle. Zanette one-timed a pass to Iuorio who was waiting at the top of the crease to the left of Garrett, and slapped it into the back of the net for his second of the night to make it a 3-0 game. Iuorio is now 7-4-11 in six games against UConn.
“We have a ton of depth up front and Giancarlo has definitely contributed to that,” Burkholder added. “He’s been unbelievable all year. He has been a great leader and he works on his game daily which is what you want to see out of your senior captain. When he’s not in the classroom he’s here working on his game. You get what you deserve. He’s currently on a hot streak and hopefully he keeps it going.”
Chartrain grabbed his first goal as a Purple Eagle a little more than six minutes later. The rookie threw the puck on net from the right of Gartus and saw it bounce off the goalie’s shoulder into the back of the net. Kohls capped off the impressive outing with a late game tally, just 15 seconds remaining in the contest. The goal was Kohl’s first of the year.
The game wrapped up with NU outshooting the Huskies by a 41-26 margin.
Niagara heads out on a three-game road trip starting with a weekend series against AHA opponent the Army Black Knights on Friday, Nov. 9 and Saturday, Nov. 10. Both contests are scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m.
