SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Both Nick Cecere and Chris Lochner scored while on the man-advantage, but a four-goal first period helped Notre Dame to a 6-3 win on Friday at the Compton Family Ice Arena.
 
The Purple Eagles found themselves in a hole after the opening 20 minutes. The Fighting Irish opened the scoring 2:05 into the game with a wrister from just inside the right circle that beat Adrian Ignagni far side. Niagara had three quality changes to tie the game in the frame, but were unable to find the back of the net. They finished the period with 11 shots on goal to ND's 13.
 
The hosts added three more goals in the final six minutes of the period with a shot from the slot, a deflection in front, and a shoveled in rebound.
 
"It was just a bizarre first period," head coach Dave Burkholder said. "I was really happy with our energy and the way we came out. I thought we got our bumps in, we got our hits in, we got a lot of quality chances, and we go to the break down 4-0."
 
"The good news is we regrouped and I'm really proud of how hard we battled in the last 40 minutes," he continued. "We won the special teams game and overall I thought we outworked them. You get what you deserve. We won the last 40 minutes 3-1, so we're going to hang our hat on that and look forward to the challenges tomorrow night."
 
Niagara broke through in the second while in the man advantage. The puck was worked  around until it found its way to Cecere at the point. The junior's low shot found its way through traffic and cut the deficit to 4-1. NU went on to finish the game 2-for-3 with the man advantage and killed off all four Notre Dame power plays.
 
Ignagni stopped all 12 shots he faced in the middle period to give his team a chance at a comeback. He made a total of 30 saves on the night.
 
Things were looking good for the Purple Eagles as they started the third with over a minute of carry-over power play time from a minor at the end of the second. Patrick Conte worked the puck back to the point where Matt Chiarantano took a shot. The rebound shook loose and Lochner was able to bury the rebound to cut the lead in half, 4-2.
 
Notre Dame's goal that came three minutes later gave the Fighting Irish back the three-goal lead, but Niagara wasn't done battling. Phillip Nasca took a feed from Chiarantano, fought off a defender and put a one-handed backhand on net, the rebound came out and Dan Kolenda buried it with a snapshot from five feet outside the crease to cut the deficit back to two, 5-3.
 
Down two goals, Niagara pulled it's goalie to go with six attackers. Notre Dame added an empty net goal with 18 seconds left to come away with the final 6-3 lead.
 
"We have a lot of warriors in [the locker room]," said Burkholder. "We have a lot of guys who care and a lot of guys with high character. Hey, at 4-0 we could have felt sorry for ourselves and packed it in, but we didn't. This is a tough building to play in against a really stacked lineup and I thought our guys held their own for the majority of the night."
 
Eight Purple Eagles registered a point on Friday night with Chiarantano leading the way with two assists.
 
These two teams meet again tomorrow night. Puck-drop is at 7:00 p.m. and the game can be seen nationally on the NBC Sports Network.