Niagara Falls Short in AHA Semifinals as Purple Eagles Lose to RMU 5-4 in OT
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Niagara hockey saw its 2013-14 season come to an end in heartbreaking fashion as the Purple Eagles were defeated by the Robert Morris Colonials, 5-4 in overtime during the Atlantic Hockey Association Semifinals from Blue Cross Arena on Friday evening.
Down a pair of goals with just over three minutes remaining in regulation, the Purple Eagles stormed back with a pair of tallies in a 47 second span via Stephen Pietrobon and Hugo Turcotte to send the former CHA rivals into extra time.
After being outshot by the Purple Eagles, 46-34, in the first three period periods, the ice began to tilt in favor of the Colonials, as Robert Morris showered starting NU goaltender Jackson Teichroeb with quality scoring opportunities, including a pair of Cody Wydo that were robbed by the sliding pad of the freshman who was making his 11th consecutive start.
It was Scott Jacklin who secured RMU a spot in the AHA championship game against Canisius, when the junior found the back of the net at 14:56 of overtime as he picked up a loose puck that deflected off a Niagara defenseman and managed to get his stick on the bouncing puck and push it past Teichroeb.
“That was a great game. I felt that both teams left it all out on the ice,” head coach Dave Burkholder said. “After the first two periods we were dramatically outshooting them, but I think Robert Morris had the greater number of grade As. Unfortunately goals are not always pretty in overtime and in our case an unfortunate bounce went off one of our players’ helmets in front of the net and went to the tape of a guy wearing white jersey. Regardless we certainly left everything we had out there.”
Hugo Turcotte scored a pair of goals while Stephen Pietrobon and Patrick Divjak accounted for other pair of Niagara tallies, while Teichroeb made 38 saves. Teichroeb’s counterpart, Dalton Izyk had to push aside 51 Niagara looks on net.
“Teichroeb certainly kept us in the game and we had our freshman class with six points on the evening which is great in a pressure cooker like this,” Burkholder added. “It’s a big deal to get here, and as much as I hate saying goodbye to the senior class they left the program better in spot than when they came in. There are a lot of young kids here who now have the experience which will make us better next year.”
Niagara went into the first intermission down by a goal, but not for a lack of scoring opportunities as the Purple Eagles were able to get some quality looks on Izyk, but the freshman goaltender pushed aside all NU shots.
Robert Morris struck first at 2:56 of the opening period Greg Gibson wristed a laser from the slot over the shoulder of Teichroeb.
Niagara began to find its legs as the period wore on, with the Purple Eagles outshooting Robert Morris, 18-12. After allowing the first goal, Teichroeb was a brick wall in between the pipes for the Purple and White. Zach Lynch had the two-goal lead in his sights with under nine minutes remaining in the frame, but his one timer to the left of Teichroeb on a wide open net was snagged down by the freshman to keep it a one-goal game heading into the break.
Niagara finally found an answer to Izyk at 3:39 of the second as Turcotte cleaned up a rebound on a shot by Dan Kolenda, whose shot was saved by Izyk where Turcotte pushed the loose puck into the back of the goal for his 12th goal of the season.
Matt Cope gave the Colonials their second lead of the contest as the sophomore blasted home a shot from the faceoff circle via assists from Brandon Denham and Chase Golightly at 9:30 of the second.
The Purple Eagles continued to pepper Izyk with shots as the teams headed into the final period of regulation, reaching the 40 shot mark for the ninth time this season. On the team’s 41st look on net Niagara leveled the game at two as Matt Williams and Pietrobon combined for the game-tying goal. Williams saucered a pass to Pietrobon on the doorstep and the freshman slapped it home for his seventh of the year.
Robert Morris would answer Niagara’s score with a pair of its own, jumping out to a 4-2 lead with 7:31 to play in regulation. The tie score did not last long as Colin South netted the Colonials’ third goal of the evening with David Friedmann and Jeff Jones picking up assists. Just 60 seconds later the lead was pushed to two as Wydo scored his 27th of the season off a 2-on-1 opportunity with Lynch.
Divjak sliced the Colonials’ lead in half with his fourth goal of the year off assists from Williams and Patrick Conte. Williams lifted the puck on net from the top of the slot that was deflected under the pads of Izyk at 16:57 by Divjak. Just 47 seconds later the Purple Eagles found the back of the net again this time off the stick of Turcotte as the sophomore put away a rebound off a Williams’ shot for his second goal of the evening.
Niagara finished the game 0-for-4 on the man-advantage, while Robert Morris went 0-for-1 while a man-up.
The Purple Eagles end their season with a 15-20-5 record.
