Box Score

NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – Freshman Chris Lochner earned his first career hat-trick, and senior goaltender Chris Noonan stopped 25 of 26 shots to lead the Niagara men’s hockey team (9-8-7; 8-4-5 AHA) to a convincing 6-1 win over the AIC Yellow Jackets (4-18-2; 3-12-2 AHA) at Dwyer Arena on Saturday evening.  

Lochner's hat-trick is the first since last season when Bryan Haczyk scored three in a 5- 4 victory over Air Force on Feb. 12.  Dwyer Arena, however, has been waiting since Paul Zanette  netted his netted his first collegiate hat-trick on Nov. 19, 2010 against RIT to witness a three goal effort. 

Junior forwards Giancarlo Iuorio and Tyler Matthews, and sophomore Scott Arnold added scores for the Purple Eagles, while sophomore Ryan Rashid and Zanette contributed two helpers to keep Niagara unbeaten in its last five contests at home (4-0-1). 

 "These have been team effort wins with balanced scoring," said head coach David Burkholder.  "Our defense has been great.  Chris Noonan has been stellar back there.  He's been very solid for us.  Lochner is a really good net front guy on the powerplay.  He's great on the retrieval and he gets open a lot.  He's a goal scorer and you can tell by some of the goals that he's scored lately."

Niagara raced out to a 4-0 lead in the second period and diminished any hope for an AIC comeback with two more tallies in the final period to snag their second straight weekend sweep. 

Niagara wasted no time establishing their presence on the ice, grabbing the lead on their first shot less than two minutes into the opening period.  Freshman Sam Alfieri helped Niagara gain the zone with a feed to freshman forward Isaac Kohls.  Khols escaped a Yellow Jacket defender before dishing a perfect feed to Arnold who beat AIC goalie Chandler Long for his tenth of the year.  

The middle frame saw the Purple Eagles take control of the scoreboard, starting with their second tally at the 13:18 mark.  A wrap around attempt by freshmen Mike Benedict banked off the shoulder of Long, but Iuorio  jumped on the rebound and knocked it home for his third of the season.  

Midway through the period, the Yellow Jackets were on the verge of killing Niagara's fourth man-advantage of the game when sophomore forward Patrick Divjak fired a shot on net from just inside the blue line that Lochner tipped in to make it a three goal game.  Matthews added another at the 15:51 mark for his second of the season off feeds from senior Clark MacLean and senior Robert Martini to make it 4-0.  
 
With less than two minutes remaining in the period, the Yellow Jackets cut their deficit down to three goals after forward Mike Penny beat Niagara netminder Noonan to make it a 4-1 game headed into the final twenty minutes of play.  

Lochner capped off his three-goal game with two powerplay tallies in the final period.  His second goal came eight minutes into the stanza, assisted by Iuorio Zanette.  With less than a minute left in the game, the freshman propelled Niagara to its fourth straight win with his final score off feeds from C.J. Chartrain and Zanette. 

"This four game segment was obviously a huge part of our season," Burkholder added.  "Coming back on home ice and to not have a bump in the road is huge.  It's put us in a change to be back at least in the conversations of winning this league.  We did what we had to do and now we'll take it back on the road again." 

The Purple Eagles return to the ice next week when they play a home and home series against the Robert Morris Colonials.  Niagara travels to the Island Sports Complex on Friday, Jan. 27 and then return home the following day to wrap up the series.  Both contests are scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m. 

For ticket information for Saturday’s game, contact the Niagara Ticket Office at 716-286-8499 or at tickets@purpleeagles.com.  

Saturday's contest will be aired live on Time Warner Cable Sportsnet.