NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – The Niagara men’s hockey team scored two third period goals to tie Saturday’s game against Atlantic Hockey foe Robert Morris, but eventually fell to the Colonials 4-2 in a nail bitter at Dwyer Arena.

“This was a valuable lesson for our young team, you can’t win Division-I hockey playing 18 minutes of hockey,” head coach Dave Burkholder said.  

Niagara (1-3-2, 1-1-0 AHA) was trailing 2-0 entering the third period against its former CHA rival and now current AHA foe Robert Morris (5-1-0, 4-1-0 AHA), when the Purple Eagles mounted a comeback.

Junior defenseman Robert Martini ripped a slapshot between the legs of two Colonial defenders and past the goalie for his first goal of the season at the 2:05 mark in the third period. Niagara would score the equalizer four minutes later on the power play with some great passing in the attacking zone.

Sophomore forward Giancarlo Iuorio and freshman forward Ryan Murphy played a one-two pass along the boards, Murphy skated behind the net and fed senior forward Bryan Haczyk in front of the net and he netted his second goal of the season.

The Colonials, however, would bag the winner when Chris Kushneriuk's shot found the back of the net at 11:42 in the period. RMU would add an empty netter with 22 seconds remaining.

“We couldn’t get going in the first period,” Burkholder said. “We had four straight penalties (in the first period), but we did a great job killing them off.  We totally dominated them in the third period which was a good sign.”

The Niagara penalty kill unit shutdown six Colonials power plays in the game. The Purple Eagles finished the game outshooting the Colonials 34-22.  

Niagara’s next game is on Tuesday, Nov. 2 when the Purple Eagles visit archrival Canisius for a 7:05 p.m. start.