Kohls and Conte Lead Purple Eagles Past RIT, 5-1
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Isaac Kohls and Patrick Conte spearheaded the Niagara hockey offense en route to the Purple Eagles weekend sweep over Western New York rival RIT with a 5-1 victory on Saturday evening at Ritter Arena.
Kohls and Conte each notched a pair of goals, while the Purple Eagles (7-14-3; 7-7-3 AHA) also received offensive contributions from TJ Sarcona (1-0-1) and Sam Alfieri (0-2-0). Niagara’s goaltender Adrian Ignagni earned the start in net for the second consecutive night, smothering 40 RIT shots, while his counterpart Jordan Ruby pushed aside 20 Purple Eagles shots before being replaced by Mike Rotolo in the third period who finished the game with 7 saves.
“Ignagni had some very timely saves for us tonight. He made the big stops and we scored on our opportunities which was the difference in the game,” head coach Dave Burkholder said. “This has been two really good team wins. The coaching staff continues to say on a daily basis that we have enough to win Atlantic Hockey and this team needed to go through a weekend like this to believe that as well. If we continue to play like we did this weekend, it will be a fun month and a half.”
The Tigers (8-13-3; 7-9-1 AHA) earned the game’s first power play just 33 seconds after the opening faceoff where Ignagni began to frustrate RIT, making three early stops to backstop the penalty killing unit. The kill tilted momentum towards Niagara as the squad began to pepper Ruby with shots and eventually pulled ahead by two before five minutes ticked off the game clock.
For the second consecutive night Kohls opened the scoring, corralling a rebound off a Vince Muto shot and let fly a shot from the slot that beat Ruby clean low, glove side at3:45 for his career-high ninth goal of the season. Less than a minute later Conte fired a laser from the right circle that flew past Ruby far post to give the Purple and White an early 2-0 lead on the road. Kevin Ryan and Sam Alfieri were credited with the assists.
RIT was finally able to get through the solid goaltending of Ignagni at 2:07 of the second frame while on the power play. Just seconds after Niagara killed off a 5-on-3 opportunity, Dan Schuler hammered home a shot from the top of the slot for his ninth of the season.
Kohls’ second goal of the evening came at 6:07 as the junior picked up a feed from Matt Williams and raced up the board before releasing a high-rising slap shot over Ruby’s shoulder.
The Tigers continued to press despite being down by a pair, but couldn’t solve Ignagni’s stellar play between the pipes. The freshman was on point during the Tigers’ power play opportunity midway through the stanza, making highlight reel stop which included a sliding toe save on Ben Lynch who had a wide open net to shoot at.
Conte and Sarcona dug RIT into a deeper hole before the end of the second with a goal each to make it a 5-1 game heading into the final period of regulation. Conte’s second of the evening came with four minutes remaining as Phil Nasca found his teammate in the slot for the one-timer. TJ Sarcona wrapped up the period with his second breakaway goal in two nights. The freshman forced an RIT turnover and raced in on Ruby before tucking in a low shot, stick side.
The shot count went in favor of RIT, 41-32. Niagara went 0-for-4 while on the man advantage, while killing off seven of eight RIT power play opportunities.
Niagara will hit the road next weekend when it travels to Milford, Conn. to take on the Sacred Heart Pioneers on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in Atlantic Hockey play. Both contests are schedule for 7:05 p.m. starts.
