Twice the Niagara men’s hockey team held the lead over Michigan State, but the Purple Eagles had to settle for a 3-3 draw as the Spartans battled back for the second time in two nights at Munn Ice Arena on Saturday evening.
With 44 seconds remaining in the contest and the Purple Eagles (1-2-2) en route to a 3-2 victory, the Spartans (1-2-1) pulled goalie Will Yanakeff for the extra man and received the game-tying goal from left winger Brent Darnell off a rebound.
The teams battled into overtime, with MSU finding six looks on net to Niagara’s one, but neither team could find the back of the net.
“That was a hard fought weekend,” head coach David Burkholder said. “We won four out of six periods on the weekend and only come out of it with a road tie which is unfortunate.”
After seeing its two-goal lead erased with a pair of third period tallies from the Spartans, Niagara right winger Dan Kolenda gave NU the 3-2 advantage with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game. Yanakeff attempted to control a Patrick Divjak dump in, but the puck bounced over his stick to Kolenda who pounced on the mistake and snapped home his first goal as a Purple Eagle, but the team was unable to hold onto the lead.
“We have to be better when we have the lead especially against CCHA teams on the road,” Burkholder added. “We had a lot of guys that played really well this weekend though, especially tonight.”
For the second straight night, the Purple Eagles were the first team to get on the scoreboard. Niagara was whistled for a boarding penalty early in the opening period, but did not sit back on the man-disadvantage. Divjak connected with a streaking Chris Lochner who buried the puck blocker side of Yanakeff 4:53 into the contest for a shorthanded tally.
Niagara’s powerplay unit came through in the second stanza after defender RJ Boyd was called for roughing with 14:12 on the clock. With 34 seconds remaining on the man-advantage, right winger Ryan Rashid picked up a pass along the boards from Divjak and let a slapper fly from the point that was tipped in by Giancarlo Iuorio with a 7:14 remaining in the period.
Greg Wolfe gave the Spartans hope in the opening minutes of the final period as the winger tipped in a feed from Lee Reimer past NU keeper Carsen Chubak to cut the Purple Eagles lead to one goal 3:21 into the stanza.
MSU continued its second comeback in two nights against the Purps as center Matt DeBlouw tallied the initial game-tying goal off an assist from Brent Darnell with 12:20 on the clock to make it 2-2.
Chubak made his second-straight start between the pipes, pushing aside 35 Spartan shots.
The trio of assists from Divjak was a single-game career-high for the junior.
Niagara continues its second longest road trip of the season next week when the Purple Eagles take on the Clarkson Golden Knights starting on Friday, Oct. 26 and wrapping up the following day. Both contests are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
