HAMDEN, Conn.- Trailing 2-1 after the first period, the Niagara men's ice hockey team (15-8-1) pulled off another upset win in a 5-3 victory over the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Jan. 26. The win, coupled with Friday night's 5-1 victory earns Niagara the two-game series sweep over the 12th ranked Bobcats, breaking Quinnipiac's 10-game unbeaten streak.

Les Reaney (Ceylon, Sask.), earning his 99th career point opened the scoring for the Purple Eagles, putting Niagara on the board just 2:19 into the first period. With the Bobcat's on the penalty-kill, Niagara had the man advantage, to allow David Ross (Bowmanville, Ont.) to feed Reaney the puck from behind the net for a shot from just outside the crease. Niagara then found themselves killing off its first penalty of the game let in two short-handed goals within a minute of each other for a 2-1 game.

The Purple Eagles pulled it together in the locker room during the first intermission and came out and scored two consecutive goals. Defenseman Tyler Gotto (Calgary, Alb.) picked up the puck in the Niagara zone and rushed it to just inside the Quinnipiac blueline and fired a slap shot which sailed past Bobcat goaltender Bud Fisher. Then, at 8:42 of the second stanza Ryan Annesley (Ajax, Ont.) sent a puck across the ice to co-captain Matt Caruana (Orono, Ont.) who was able to tip the puck past Fisher on the short side.

Quinnipiac wasn't going to let up just yet, Bobcat Isak Tranvik was able to slip the puck past Niagara goaltender Juliano Pagliero (Dalroy, Alb) to tie the score at 3 about halfway through the second period.

Recording the game-winning goal, his second game winner of the season was junior Kyle Rogers (Erie, Pa.) who was passed the puck from Vince Rocco (Woodbridge, Ont.) from behind the Quinnipiac goal line for a tip and a goal.

"Matt won the face-off and Rocco found my stick," said Rogers. "Honestly, I didn't even see the puck, all the credit has to go to Caruana and Rocco for making the play."

Niagara's final goal came less than seven minutes into the third period. Nate Bostic (Holden, Mass) had the initial shot, and the rebound found Paul Zanette (Nobelton, Ont.) and eventually Chris Moran (Buffalo, N.Y.) for the goal that put the icing on the cake to end the game at 5-3.

"Back to back nights, playing as well as we did says a lot about the character in the locker room," said coach Dave Burkholder. "We offensively scored some highlight real goals and I was very impressed with our transition game."

Pagliero played all sixty minutes of the contest, knocking down 32 shots and advancing his record to 11-5-1 on the season.

Niagara's win finished a four-game undefeated road-trip and marks the first time since last time it met the then-No. 16 Bobcats at Dwyer Arena on Jan. 19-20, 2007 that the Purple Eagles were able to sweep a nationally ranked team.

The Purple Eagles are back in action Saturday, Feb. 2  back at Dwyer Arena to host St. Lawrence at 7 p.m.