Box Score

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The Niagara men's hockey team (15-10-9; 14-6-7 AHA) held on for a 2-2 road tie against the RIT Tigers (17-11-6; 14-7-6 AHA) on Saturday night at Frank Ritter Arena in the regular-season finale.  

The tie earns the Purple Eagles the No. 2 seed heading into the AHA tournament with 35 points, one point behind the Air Force Falcons.   

Senior captain Chris Haltigin sent the game into overtime, scoring the equalizer while on the powerplay with 6:25 remaining in the game on a one-time shot through traffic from the point off a feeds from senior Cameron Burt and sophomore Greg Noyes.   

Niagara netminder Chris Noonan helped Niagara extend its unbeaten streak to four games heading into playoff action as he turned aside 51 RIT shots, including 23 in the second frame, improving his record to 12-5-5. 

"We were a bounce away from winning a championship," head coach David Burkholder said.  "From start to finish they were the hungrier team.  Chris Noonan stole the show for us.  He was everything and more for us tonight.  He got us at least a point which ends up being the number two seed in the league." 

Freshmen duo Sam Alfieri and Chris Lochner combined for Niagara's first goal of the game while on the man-advantage.  With 14:40 on the clock in the opening period, Alfieri dished a perfect feed to the trailing Lochner for the easy tap in past RIT goalie Tigers' goalie Shane Madolora, tying him for the team lead in goals with 11. 

RIT increased the pressure in the Niagara defensive zone at the start of the second period, resulting in an early goal to tie the game at one apiece.  Less than two minutes in, senior Cameron Burt picked up the puck and skated towards the back of the net before throwing a crisp pass towards junior Jeff Smith  for the one timer that flew past the shoulder of Noonan. 

With a little more than five minutes left in the second period, special teams came through for the Purple Eagles again, this time while on the man-disadvantage.  Junior Jeff Hannan picked up a puck swatted out of the Niagara defensive zone by senior defender Robert Martini.  Hannan raced down the right-wing side and ripped a low shot that found its way under the pads of Madolora for his fourth goal of the year. 

With yesterday's victory over the Tigers, Niagara earned a first-round bye for the AHA Tournament.  The Purple Eagles will be back in action on Friday, Mar. 9 as they host the quarterfinal round at Dwyer Arena.