NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – In the seniors’ final regular season home game of the 2012-13 campaign, the No. 15 Niagara hockey team dropped the Mercyhurst Lakers, 4-2, in front of a sellout crowd at Dwyer Arena on Friday evening.
After honoring the six graduating Purple Eagles before puck drop, four straight tallies over 40 minutes of play pushed the Purple Eagles to a 20-6-5 overall mark, and a 19-3-2 Atlantic Hockey record.
“When you’re playing in your pod, and the rivalries we’ve created with teams like Mercyhurst, Robert Morris and Canisius, we need to be ready and I think for the most part our guys have responded,” head coach David Burkholder said. “The first two periods I was very pleased with our team. I think we just need to play better for 60 minutes. I thought for 40 minutes we executed everything we wanted to do. We got pucks deep and on net, I thought we finished all our checks, but the little details that will win you championships can’t be turned on and off.”
Four seniors pocketed a point in the win, with Jason Beattie leading the way with his fourth career two-point night (1-1-2). Dan Weiss and Giancarlo Iuorio each scored, while Marc Marc Zanette contributed a helper. Rookie Hugo Turcotte also added a score on the night.
The victory over Mercyhurst (14-14-3; 12-10-2 AHA) also extended Niagara’s current home ice unbeaten streak to 20 games, two shy of the program record of 22 achieved between Feb. 11, 2006 and Nov. 17, 2007.
“We’re creeping up on the 22 game unbeaten streak which was fifth best ever,” Burkholder added. “Dan, Jason and Giancarlo each had a big goal tonight. We’re going to go as far as our seniors will take us and they were terrific. Overall the team has been working really hard Monday through Thursday. We have this four game segment that we have a lot to play for. The team is just focused and take it day to day. They are very professional in that regard.”
It didn’t take long for the Purple Eagles to get on the board as Turcotte netted his fourth goal of the season at the 18:16 mark of the first period to put Niagara up 1-0. Patrick Divjak started the play behind the Mercyhurst net, finding Beattie in the right faceoff circle who saw his shot tipped in by Turcotte underneath the pads of Mercyhurst goaltender Max Strang.
Iuorio gave Niagara a two-goal cushion heading into the first intermission with his fifth goal in three games. Iuorio picked up a cleared puck by Zanette near the Laker bench, and skated in on Strang for the partial breakaway, slipping a low shot, stick-side for his team-leading 17th goal of the year.
The Lakers saw their deficit increase in the second 20 minutes of play as the Purple Eagles received scores from Weiss and Beattie. Weiss was the first to get on board in the frame. Sam Alfieri pushed the puck out to Weiss along the left boards and the captain ripped a low shot from the top of the faceoff circle for his third tally of the year.
About four minutes later, Beattie’s slap shot from just inside the blueline was deflected off the skate of a Mercyhurst defenseman behind Strang for the captain’s first goal of the season, and fifth of his career.
Mercyhurst came out strong in the final period of play, outshooting Niagara 14-7 and netting a pair of goals from Daniel O’Donoghue and Ryan Misiak in the opening 10 minutes of play. However the Lakers could not complete the comeback as the strong play of NU goaltender Carsen Chubak and the Purple Eagle defense buckled down to solidify the victory.
Chubak finished the game with 31 saves to improve his record to 20-4-5.
The Purple Eagles head to the Mercyhurst Ice Center tomorrow for the second game of the weekend series. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:05 p.m.
