FINDLAY, Ohio – The Niagara University men’s hockey team (11-10-2, 7-2-0) lost its second consecutive College Hockey America conference game Friday, losing 4-2 to emotionally-charged University of Findlay (5-15-3, 2-6-1) at Clauss Ice Arena. A Kris Wiebe hat-trick paced the Oilers to their first win in their last 12 games.
Playing in its first home game since announcing that the university will be cutting both the men’s and women’s programs, due to budgetary constraints, at the end of the season, Findlay took advantage of two first period goals to hand the Purple Eagles their first conference loss on the road of the season.
"They were a team on a mission," Niagara head coach Dave Burkholder said. "I have a new-found respect for their program. We’ll try to regroup for tomorrow."
Midway into the first period, Wiebe scored the first of his three goals in the contest, hitting a heavy slapshot off a faceoff win by teammate Christian Olson. The Oilers added to the lead late in the first period when forward Mark Bastl placed a wrist shot over the left shoulder of Niagara senior goaltender Rob Bonk (Fenton, Mich.), taking advantage of an extra attacker on a Purple Eagles’ delayed penalty.
Niagara attempted to forge a comeback late in the second period when freshman Chad Murray (Vernon, B.C.) scored his first collegiate goal, hitting a high-backhand shot that deflected off Oilers’ freshman goaltender Will Hooper and into the net, making the score 2-1 in favor of the home team.
Just over a minute following Murray’s goal, Wiebe maneuvered a wrister past Bonk, swinging momentum back to the Oilers at 18:25 of the second period. Wiebe’s first two goals were scored on the power play, as Findlay went 2-5 on man advantages in the contest. Niagara failed to capitalize on any of its power-play chances, going 0-9.
Sophomore defenseman Brian Mills (Oakville, Ont.) added a late goal for the Purple Eagles, reducing the Findlay lead to 3-2, with a little under two minutes remaining, however the night belonged to Wiebe. The junior captain added an empty net goal with less than a minute remaining in regulation, netting his first hat-trick of his collegiate career.
Niagara was outshot by Findlay, 43-37. Bonk managed to make 39 saves in the loss, with the freshman Hooper making 35 saves to pick up his fourth win of the season.
The Purple Eagles look to break their two-game losing streak in the second game of the two-game series against Findlay Saturday. With a Niagara win, the Purple Eagles would tie idle-Bemidji State for first place in the CHA standings.
