Box Score

ERIE, Pa. - The Niagara men's hockey team (5-5-6; 4-2-5 AHA) extended its unbeaten streak to six games, after a 4-3 victory over the second-place Mercyhurst Lakers (8-8-2; 7-2-2 AHA) at the Mercyhurst Ice Center on Saturday evening. 

It was a solid team effort as four Purple Eagles got on the board with senior Dan Baco tallying the game winner at the 14:41 mark of the final period to make it a 4-2 game.  Baco and Scott Arnold each had a goal and an assist for the game, while sophomore Patrick Divjak found the back of the net once and contributed two helpers.  Sam Alfieri also had two assists. 

Niagara netminder Chris Noonan had an outstanding game between the pipes, pushing aside 35 shots. 

"What a good way to end a very tough part of our league schedule," said head coach David Burkholder.  "Tonight was our best team effort of the season.  When it counted most, our top players made huge plays to seal the win." 

Niagara battled back from one-goal deficits twice in the opening period to head into the second period deadlocked at two.  Mercyhurst got out to an early lead 1:44 into the game off the stick of Kevin Noble.  Junior Marc Zanette grabbed his sixth goal of the season with less than five minutes left in the period to tie the game at one apiece off feeds from Isaac Kohls and Alfieri. 

Less than a minute later, the Lakers found the back of the net to pull ahead by one as Zac Frischmon snuck one past Noonan.  Niagara finished the period on a strong note however, as Arnold ripped a laser past goalie Max Strang for his seventh goal of the year. 

Niagara scored the next three goals of the game, pulling ahead by two with less than five minutes left to play.  Divjak gave Niagara its first lead of the game on a power play goal just 2:26 into the final frame. 

Paul Chiasson would pull Mercyhurst within one in the remaining three minutes, but the Lakers could not complete the comeback. 

The game would finish with Niagara outshooting Mercyhurst 49-38, including  by a 27-9 margin after the opening 20 minutes.  With the win, the Purple Eagles jump ahead to fourth place in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings and improve to 3-1-3 during the team's program-record long 11-game road trip. 

Niagara wraps up the 2011 portion of its schedule with two games at the 2011 Mariucci Classic hosted by the University of Minnesota.  Niagara takes on the host-No. 2/2 Minnesota Golden Gophers on Friday, Dec. 30 at 7:05 p.m. The Purple Eagles will face either Princeton or Northeastern at 4 p.m on New Year's Eve.