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BUFFALO - The Niagara men's hockey team (13-10-8; 12-6-6 AHA) dropped the Canisius Golden Griffins (9-18-4; 9-12-3 AHA) in a strong 4-1 victory on Valentine's Day at the Buffalo State Sports Arena. 

The win ties Niagara with the Mercyhurst Lakers for third place with 30 points in the AHA standings, holding the tie-breaker after going 2-1 against the Lakers earlier this season.   

Sophomore forward Ryan Murphy finished the game with a goal and an assist while teammates Chris Lochner , Giancarlo Iuorio  and Dan Weiss each added a tally.  Junior Jeff Hannan  contributed two helpers.   

"Any points at the end of the year is a big deal to us," head coach David Burkholder said.  "We're thrilled to come on the road and get the win.  It wasn't a pretty effort, but we're going to take the two points and go with it.  They outchanced us and outhit us in the first and actually had it going in the second, but we were just opportunistic."

Niagara netminder Chris Noonan pushed aside 31 Canisius attempts on net, improving his record to 10-5-4.  He has allowed only one goal in his last two games versus the Golden Griffins at Buffalo State Sports Arena. 

"Chris is playing like a senior," Burkholder said.  "Nothing fazes him.  He had good rebound control and made some great saves too."

In a physical opening frame, the Purple Eagles came out with the 1-0 lead off the stick of Weiss at the 11:29 mark.  Hannan connected with Weiss outside the faceoff circle, who ripped a shot through a screen that found its way past Griffins goaltender Dan Morrison. 

Scoring opened up in the second twenty minutes as Niagara tallied three goals and Canisius added one more to make it a 4-1 game heading into the final period.  Lochner started scoring a little more than five minutes into the period on the powerplay.  The initial shot by Ryan was stopped by Morrison, but Lochner continued to whack at the puck until it slipped underneath the goalie’s pads for his 10th goal of the year. 
 
Niagara found the back of the net 12 seconds later as sophomore Ryan Rashid and Hannan rushed into the offensive zone on a tic-tac-toe play before Rashid found the trailing Murphy for the easy tap in.   

Iuorio made a solid solo effort at 14:29 mark of the period to give the Purple Eagles a four-goal lead.  Iuorio forced a turnover in the Canisius end and sidestepped a diving Morrison to grab his seventh tally of the year. 

Canisius bounced back with a tally of their own to prevent the shutout less than a minute later.  Freshman Doug Beck took advantage of a Niagara turnover, one-timing a shot at the top of the slot two bring the game back within three. 

The Purple Eagles are 8-4-2 in the last 14 games against their cross-town rival.  After tonight's result, Niagara leads Canisius in the Battle of the Bridge series by a 11.5 to 6.5 margin. 

Niagara hits the ice against Canisius this Thursday at 7:05 p.m. to wrap up its home-and-home series. To reserve tickets for Thursday's contest contact the Niagara Ticket Office (located inside Dwyer Arena) at 716-286-TIXX or by emailing Tickets@PurpleEagles.com. 

The game can also be seen live in the Buffalo area courtesy of Time Warner Cable Sports Net.