Holy Cross Doubles Up Niagara, 4-2
NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – Despite holding a 43-27 advantage in shots on goal, the Niagara hockey team failed to capitalize on its chances in a 4-2 loss to the Holy Cross Crusaders on Friday evening at Dwyer Arena.
The Purple Eagles ran into the solid goaltending of Holy Cross netminder, Matt Ginn who snuffed 41 Niagara shots, including 19 in the final frame. Jackson Teichroeb started between the pipes for the Purple Eagles, stopping 17 shots, before Adrian Igangni took over goaltending duties at the start of the third period with six stops.
“Ginn is the first start of the hockey game. Their guy stole two points for Holy Cross. We threw 20 shots on him in the third period with nothing to show for it,” head coach Dave Burkholder said. “If we’re going to win tomorrow we’re going to have to jump on the rebounds and be more opportunistic around the cage when those second chances come around.”
Chris Lochner and TJ Sarcona scored the pair of Niagara goals. The loss drops the Purple and White to 5-13-3 on the season and 5-6-3 in Atlantic Hockey play, while Holy Cross see its record move to 5-15-2 overall, and 4-9-2 in league action.
The Crusaders took a 2-0 lead into the second period off a pair of power play goals. Mike Barrett started the scoring at 11:05 with his sixth of the season. With two seconds remaining on the man-advantage, Brett McKinnon slipped a feed across the crease to Barrett who pushed the puck under Teichroeb to make it 1-0.
About five minutes later Holy Cross doubled its lead when Jake Bolton’s wrist shot from the top of the slot beat Teichroeb low, glove-side.
The Purple Eagles came out firing in the second frame, finally able to slice its AHA opponent’s lead in half three minutes into the period. Dan Kolenda found Vince Muto just inside the blue line, and his slap shot was tipped in by Lochner for his fourth of year.
The Crusaders were tally the next pair of goals to dig Niagara into a three-goal hole. Midway through the second Sean Gustin jumped on a loose puck caused by a Tommy Dwyer takeaway on the far boards. Gustin raced in on Teichroeb and backhanded a floater towards Teichroeb that managed to trickle behind the red line to make it 3-1 heading into the final period of play.
Nick Finn would add Holy Cross’s final of goal of the game with 3:21 remaining in the contest to solidify the victory. Niagara’s Sarcona would grab his fifth goal of the year with just over a minute remaining in regulation via assists by Kevin Albers and Patrick Divjak, but it was too late to stage a comeback.
The Purple Eagles will look to bounce back against the Crusaders tomorrow at 7 p.m. Tickets are still available so call the Niagara Ticket Office (located inside Dwyer Arena) at 716-286-TIXX, visit www.PurpleEagles.com/Tickets or by emailing [email protected] to reserve your seats today!
