BEMIDJI, MINN. - The Niagara men's hockey team (2-10-2, 1-3-1 CHA) played a strong, highly contested game against the No. 5 Bemidji State Beavers (13-2-1, 8-0-0 CHA), but ultimately fell in its fifth one-goal contest of the season by a margin of 3-2 at the John Glas Fieldhouse on Saturday night.

Down 3-1 late in the third period, the Purple Eagles pulled sophomore netminder Chris Noonan (Portage, Mich). for the extra attacker; a move that paid immediate dividends. Senior Ryan Olidis (Uxbridge, Ont.) extended his point streak to eight games, when he came out from behind the net, curled in front and beat Bemidji State netminder Dan Bakala to come within one. Niagara would try frantically to tie the game at three in the remaining time left, but fell just one goal short.

"We played another good road game, but we couldn't get the result we wanted," head coach Dave Burkholder said. "We competed all night, outhit and outshot them, but came up one goal short on the scoreboard."

After a scoreless first period, Bemidji State broke the tie early in the middle stanza, when Beavers captain Chris McKelvie snuck one past Noonan. Just about 10 minutes later, Tyler Lehrke found a streaking Ben Kinne on the doorstep, where he backhanded the puck past Noonan on the power-play.

Freshman Giancarlo Iuorio (Richmond Hill, Ont.) scored early in the third period to cut the Beavers lead to 2-1, which would stand until Jamie MacQueen would beat Noonan blocker side for the eventual game-winning goal with four minutes remaining.

Niagara returns to the ice on Friday, when they host Robert Morris at 7 p.m.