Friday: Game Notes | Live Video | Live Audio | Live Stats
Saturday: Live Video | Live Audio | Live Stats
 
The Niagara Purple Eagles begin the six-game road trip that starts the 2015 calendar year with a two-game set against the Sacred Heart Pioneers this weekend. 

History 101

• Niagara starts the new year off against an opponent it has had success against. In the 12 all-time meetings between the two programs, Niagara has a 10-1-1 record.
• The Purple Eagles started the series with a seven-game winning streak against the Pioneers that lasted from 11/16/07 to 11/27/11 when the teams played to a 4-4 tie. Since that tie, Niagara is on a 3-1-1 run.

 
Last Time Out

• Defenseman Matt Chiarantano secured his first goal as a Purple Eagle and Jackson Teichroeb made 27 saves as the Niagara hockey team picked up a 4-1 victory against Sacred Heart at the Milford Ice Pavilion to split the season series against the Pioneers. Isaac Kohls, TJ Sarcona, and Hugo Turcotte added the other goals for the Purple and White.

 
Let's Go To The Highlights

• One Purple Eagle has recorded a career-moment against the Pioneers.
• That honor goes to Matt Chiarantano who scored his first-career goal against Sacred Heart on Feb. 2, 2014. The goal opened the scoring in a game that would go down as a 4-1 NU victory.

 
We've Been Here Before

• While the first half of the season hasn't quite gone the way we had hoped, the Purple Eagles have rallied from a first half like this before - last season.
• They had a 3-11-2 record heading into the Winter break before ending the year on an 8-6-2 run while fighting off injuries. They went on to sweep AIC in the first round of the playoffs before topping Air Force in overtime of game three to head to Rochester and the AHA semifinals. That, however, is where the run would end, with a 5-4 overtime loss to the Robert Morris Colonials.

 
We're Going To Overtime?

• Only two games this year have gone into overtime. The first was on Nov. 8 at Bentley. For anyone who doesn't remember, NU won that game 3-2 on an Isaac Kohls tally (In fact, there is a note about that win a little later on).
• The other OT game was the most recent outing: a 1-1 tie against RIT on Dec. 13. That game was the first tie of the season for NU.
• That is the longest the Purple Eagles have gone without a tie since the 2007-08 season when the first tie came 13 games into the season on Dec. 1 against Bemidji State (2-2).  That year, the team finished 22-11-4 and made an NCAA Tournament appearance.