NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – Despite drastically outshooting the Robert Morris Colonials on Saturday night, a 4-1 loss dropped the Niagara Purple Eagles to 0-4 on the season.
 
Niagara (0-4-0; 0-2-0 AHA) nearly doubled-up Robert Morris (4-0-0; 2-0-0 AHA) in shots on goal with a 34-17 advantage at the final horn, which included an 11-4 lead after the first period, but were only able to find the back of the net once.
 
"It's not good enough," head coach Dave Burkholder said. "The first two periods, especially the first period, I thought [Dalton Izyk] had too many clean looks at the puck. We outshot them dramatically for the game, but it's an easy night for their goalie."
 
"I don't think we spent enough time in the dirty areas that win you hockey games," he continued. "That's the difference."
 
Special teams played a big role again for the Purple Eagles. RMU opened the scoring late in the first with a power play goal with less than two minutes to go. The score stayed at 1-0 until the Colonials added a shorthanded tally just over a minute into the third period to take a 2-0 lead.
 
The Purple and White found some life shortly thereafter when they scored their first goal of the season while on the man advantage. Still a man up after the Colonials were assessed a major penalty at the end of the second, Lawrence Smith rang a shot off the pipe with the rebound finding an open Hugo Turcotte in the right circle. The junior put NU on the board with a clapper that found the top right corner of the net to cut the deficit in half, 2-1.
 
With Turcotte's goal, Niagara finished the night 1-for-6 with the man advantage while Robert Morris finished with a 1-for-4 clip.
 
Niagara kept the pressure up, but RMU added the first of two security goals at the 7:54 mark before they added another with eight minutes to play. The two unanswered goals gave RMU the 4-1 win and the weekend sweep.
 
"It's one of those games where we didn't play a full 60 minutes," said Burkholder. "When [Adrian Ignagni] is playing well, we weren't, and when he's playing well, we're not. We haven't put it together yet. It is what it is until we can get this thing on track."
 
Ignagni got the start again between the pipes after turning in a 42-save performance last night. He added 13 saves to his season total in the loss. Smith's assist on the Turcotte goal give the freshman the first point of his NCAA career.
 
The Purple Eagles head back on the road next weekend for a pair of games against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Saturday's game will be broadcast nationally via the NBC Sports Network at 7:00 p.m.