Box Score

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The No. 14/15 Niagara hockey team battled back from a goal down twice, but it was not enough as the Purple Eagles’ Atlantic Hockey playoff run ended in the semifinal round with a 5-3 loss to Canisius in an intense, high-scoring contest Friday afternoon in Rochester, N.Y.   

The Purple Eagles’ NCAA tournament hopes are on hold after suffering their second consecutive AHA semifinal defeat, now waiting for Sunday’s NCAA selection show to determine whether the team will earn an at-large bid.  Niagara has made three previous NCAA appearances while a member of College Hockey America, and would be the first AHA team in conference history to receive an at at-large bid.  

Niagara would tie the contest twice in the second after falling behind a goal, but the Griffins pulled away with the game with an early third period tally that would give the Griffins a two-goal advantage and one NU could not dig themselves out of.  

"Canisius was the better team tonight," head coach David Burkholder said.  "They were very good defensively.  We couldn't get through their neutral zone trap.  Everyone coming in thought it would be a low scoring game, but they showed a little more grit and more passion than we did and now we're going home."
 
A little over three minutes into the semifinal, the Purple Eagles grabbed the game’s first lead as the Niagara top line combined for a score.  Ryan Murphy threw the puck on Canisius netminder Tony Capobianco that was picked up by Giancarlo Iuorio and buried home his 20^th goal of the year on a tight angled shot. 

The Golden Griffins would tally the next pair of goals as Cody Freeman and Ben Danford scored for Canisius to head into the first intermission with a 2-1 lead.  

Freeman began to scoring with 9:27 on the clock.  Kyle Gibbons picked up a waved off icing for NU, feeding Sullivan on the left side.  Sullivan connected with Freeman to the left of NU goaltender Carsen Chubak and slapped home a one timer. 

After killing off a Niagara’s power play late in the frame, Canisius grabbed its first lead of the evening as Danford scored on a scramble after Chubak made the initial save, but could not hold onto the puck.  

The teams headed into the period with Niagara holding a 15-12 advantage in shots.    

Niagara and Canisius traded tallies in the second period, with the Purps once again netting an early period goal this time from Hugo Turcotte.  A funny bounce along the boards kept the puck in the Griffin zone and was picked up by Isaac Kohls at the top of the blue line.  Kohls’ long attempt was saved by Capobianco, but he gave up a huge rebound that Turcotte jumped on.  The rookie’s initial shot was stopped by the sprawled out goaltender, but he continued to whack at it until the puck snuck into the net.    

The even game was short-lived, as Canisius regained the lead about four minutes later when Stephen Miller wristed a shot from the left circle that was tipped over the shoulder of Chubak by Tyler Wiseman at 8:24, but for the second time in the frame NU would knot the game.  With 6:49 on the clock, Marc Zanette connected with Iuorio from behind the net and the senior’s one-timer on the doorstep ripped by Capobianco for his second score of the contest.

The second period ended like the first one had with Canisius scoring a goal in the final minue of play.  With 20 seconds on the clock, and 56 seconds remaining on the power play, Griffins’ Stephen Farrell fed Duncan McKellar across the slot for the easy tap in to make it 4-3 Canisius heading into the second intermission.   

The Purps continued to dominate the shot chart, leading the Griffins in that category by a 18-11 margin in the second and 33-23 overall.

The first two-goal lead of the game came 1:58 into the final frame after Canisius jumped out 5-3 off Wiseman's second tally of the contest, and it would be the goal that put the rivalry game out of reach the Purple Eagles.  

Chubak finished the game with 24 saves.  

The NCAA Selection Show is schedule for Sunday, March 24 at 9 p.m. on ESPNU.