NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – The Niagara hockey team saw its home coming spoiled by AIC as the Purple Eagle suffered a 6-2 defeat to the Yellow Jackets at Dwyer Arena on Friday evening.

Niagara could not find an answer to AIC's John Puskar as the senior forward scored a natural hat trick and added a fourth en route to a loss that dropped NU to 4-12-3 on the season and 4-5-3 in conference action.  The Yellow Jackets are now 5-11-3 and 5-7-0 in AHA play.  It was the team's first game on home-ice since sweeping Army on Nov. 15-16, 2013. 

Hugo Turcotte and Isaac Kohls were the only Purple Eagles to get on the scoreboard.  Adrian Ignagni made five stops before Jackson Teichroeb took over goaltending duties and finished the contest with 10 saves. 

"It was such a tough stretch on the road.  It's been almost two months since we've played at Dywer so to come back here and be that flat was very disappointing," head coach Dave Burkholder said.  "You have to give AIC credit.  When you give up 20 shots and they score five times you're not going to win at any level with those numbers.  The loss is not on our two goalies because we were flat from start to finish and couldn't get any momentum going."

The Yellow Jackets took control of the scoreboard in the first five minutes of the contest as AIC received goals from Jason Popek and Puskar.  Thirty-eight seconds after puck drop Popek ripped a high-rising shot over the shoulder of Ignagni to take a 1-0 lead on the game's first shot, before Puskar added his first tally of the contest seven seconds into the power play. 

Puskar would contribute another two goals in the final five minutes of the frame to dig Niagara into a 4-0 hole that it would not be able to climb out of.

The first two shots of the second stanza counted as goals as Niagara and AIC traded the only pair of tallies in the frame to make it 5-1 heading into the final period.  Turcotte prevented the shutout 16 seconds in with his sixth goal of the season.  Matt Williams started the play with a cross-ice pass to Kohls along the near boards.  AIC starting netminder Hunter Leisner could not handle the slapshot from the junior and the rebound was pounced on by Turcotte just outside the blue paint.  

The Purple Eagles thought they would be able to capitalize on the momentum off the goal, but Puskar had other ideas as he cashed in on goal number four of the evening to give AIC a 5-1 advantage.      

Kohls would grab his second point of the game in the third period on the Purple Eagles second and final goal.  At 9:05 of the final frame Kohls scored his fifth of the season as a Kevin Albers' slap shot from the slot bounced off the goaltender and straight to Kohls' stick for the easy tap in. 

AIC would add an empty netter to wrap up scoring and solidify the victory.

The Purple Eagles look to bounce back against the Yellow Jackets tomorrow at 7:05 p.m.

Tickets are still available for both games so please call the Niagara Tickets Office (located inside Dwyer Arena) at 716-286-TIXX, visit www.PurpleEagles.com/Tickets or by emailing Tickets@PurpleEagles.com to reserve your seats today!