NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – The Niagara hockey team came out with a concerted effort to generate more offense in its second game of the weekend against the Air Force Falcons. Niagara finished the night with a 28-18 shots on goal advantage, but fell 3-0 Saturday night at Dwyer Arena.
Before the game, Niagara honored its five graduating seniors who played in their last home game: forward Dan Kolenda, defensemen Nick Cecere, Matt Chiarantano and Matt Dineen, and goaltender Chris Paulin. Niko Kovachis led the team with five shots on the night, while Kolenda and Cecere each picked up three. Jackson Teichroeb stopped 15 of 18 shots in the loss.
“It’s a team that played their tails off,” head coach Dave Burkholder said of his team’s performance. “We dominated play. They got opportunistic and made a couple plays around the cage, which we did not. Our overall feeling as a staff is if we play like that, we’re going to win a [playoff] series. That’s how good we feel about our effort tonight.”
The Purple Eagles (5-23-6, 5-18-5 Atlantic Hockey) came out set to attack the Falcons, finishing checks all over the ice and generating numerous opportunities in the offensive zone from the start of the game. The team was not deterred from this goal, even when Air Force tallied 1:47 into the game as a loose puck in front of the net ended up on the stick of the Falcons’ Evan Feno, who buried a low shot past Teichroeb.
In similar fashion to Friday night, the turning point for Air Force (18-11-5, 16-7-5 Atlantic Hockey) was the second period. Despite Niagara holding a 13-6 advantage in shots on goal during the middle stanza, goaltender Shane Starrett held firm for the Falcons, who scored two goals at the other end to secure a lead they would not relinquish. Matt Serratore scored a power-play goal at the 12:55 mark to double the Air Force lead, and Tyler Ledford scored off an odd-man rush just under four minutes later to take the 3-0 lead after 40 minutes.
As Air Force looked to hold on to its lead in the final 20 minutes of play, Niagara continued to control possession time and lead in the shots on goal department, besting Air Force 7-3 in the final period. Nick Farmer hit a shot off the crossbar on a power play to start the third period, and Kolenda had a golden chance early in the period as well after he found some space in the high slot. As has been the case in the season series, Niagara struggled to beat the freshman goaltender Starrett, who posted a shutout for the Falcons in two of the four games in the regular season series.
With all regular-season games now completed in Atlantic Hockey, the Purple Eagles finished in tenth place and will face a familiar foe in the first round, as the Canisius Golden Griffins finished in seventh place following a 6-2 loss at Robert Morris Saturday night. First round postseason action begins on Friday, March 4.
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