NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. - For the second consecutive year, the Niagara men's hockey team (0-0-1, 0-0-0 AHA) opened up the season at home with a 4-4 tie, this time against the Merrimack Warriors (0-0-1, 0-0-0 HE) in front of 1,355 fans at Dwyer Arena on Saturday night.

The Purple Eagles opened up the 2009-10 season against the Colgate Raiders and held a lead, before finishing the game at a 4-4 draw.

"I liked our game," head men's hockey coach Dave Burkholder said. "Other than a three minute span during the second period, from start to finish, we outhit them and battled."

Senior Ryan Annesley opened scoring on Niagara's first shot on goal for the season, dekeing past the stick side of Warriors netminder Joe Cannata just 2:13 in the opening stanza. Merrimack tied the game on the man-advantage nearly seven minutes later, when Stephane Da Costa rifled a slap shot from the right faceoff circle that beat junior netminder Chris Noonan.

Niagara was first to strike in the second period as well, when senior David Ross found a rebound from a Bryan Haczyk shot for the 2-1 lead just 31 seconds in. Fellow senior Paul Zanette gave Niagara a 3-1 lead five minutes later on the penalty kill, his fifth career short-handed goal. Zanette's fifth career short-handed goal places him in a tie for most career short-handed goals at Niagara, with Mikko Sivonen ('00).

The Warriors closed out the period by scoring three consecutive goals in a 2:48 span, from Jeff Velleca, John Heffernan and Brandon Brodhag.   

The game-tying goal came 64 seconds into the third period, when an innocent centering feed from freshman Ryan Rashid bounced off of a defenders skate and into the back of the net. The Purps outshot Merrimack by a 17-13 margin throughout the rest of regulation and overtime, but just couldn't find the back of the net.

"For a young team to hang on and play like they did, says a lot about who is in our locker room," Burkholder said.

Annesley finished the game with three points (a goal and two assists), a new career-high. Noonan made 33 stops for Niagara.

Niagara is back in action on Friday, Oct. 15, when they host UMass-Lowell at 7 p.m.