HAMDEN, CONN. - The Niagara men's hockey team (7-13-3, 2-4-1 CHA) came back from two deficits to leave the state of Connecticut unbeaten, playing the Quinnipiac Bobcats (13-10-2. 7-6-0 CHA) to a 3-3 draw on Saturday night at the T.D. Bank Sports Center.

Down 3-1 heading into the third period, Niagara responded by scoring twice to tie the game within the first two minutes of the frame. Junior David Ross (Bowmanville, Ont.) stole the puck in the offensive zone and put it past Bobcats netminder Dan Clarke to come within one. One minute later, sophomore Wes Consorti (Brantford, Ont.) wristed a shot from the right face off circle, which beat Clarke high to tie the game.

"The courage I saw from the guys in the third period says a lot about who is in our locker room," head coach Dave Burkholder said. "We had to come out and fight hard for 20 minutes and we did just that."

The Bobcats opened scoring early in the first period on the man-advantage, when Brandon Wong tipped a point shot over the shoulder of sophomore netminder Chris Noonan (Portage, Mich.). The Purple Eagles would respond on the man-advantage in the second period, when senior Ryan Olidis (Uxbridge, Ont.) left a drop pass for senior Tyler Gotto (Calgary, Alb.) at the point, which he ripped low past Clarke to tie the game at one.

Quinnipiac would regain the lead on a controversial goal near the end of the second period, when the puck was batted out of mid-air by an appearent high stick by Jean-Marc Beaudoin past Noonan. The Bobcats would capitalize on their new found momentum, when Wong scored his second goal of the night just 3:05 later.

Niagara now improves to 11-2-1 against the Bobcats all-time, while keeping an unbeaten record at the T.D. Bank Sports Center, going 3-0-1 lifetime in that facility. The Purple Eagles have now lost just once in their last five outings, going 3-1-1 in their last five.

Noonan made a career-high 55 saves in earning the draw for the Purple Eagles.

The Purple Eagles are back in action on January 29-30, when they travel to take on CHA rival Alabama-Huntsville in the final conference series between the two teams in Alabama.