COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Three freshmen scored their first collegiate goals for the Niagara Purple Eagles in Saturday night's 4-3 overtime loss to the Air Force Falcons.
 
Luke Edwards, Stanislav Dzakhov, and Lawrence Smith all tallied the first coals of their NCAA careers. Edwards and Smith both scored even strength while Dzakhov's came with the man-advantage.
 
"We haven't been scoring a lot of five-on-five goals so it's nice to get contributions from other guys," head coach Dave Burkholder said. "Luke has gradually been getting better and this was Stan's best game of the season from start to finish. I thought he was a force out there. We're going to need these guys to keep chipping in down the stretch."
 
The Purple Eagles (3-15-2; 3-11-2 AHA) were first on the board again on Saturday as Edwards scored on an impressive individual effort. The freshman from Kingston, Ontario got the puck along the right wing boards, cut to the middle where his initial shot was saved, but he followed up and cashed in the rebound to put his squad up 1-0.
 
Continuing a night of firsts, Dzakhov was next to with a power-play tally to put NU up 2-0. He went in on a 2-on-1 rush from the offensive blue line with Albin Karlsson, who waited for the defenseman to commit before feathering a pass to his teammate. Dzakhov converted the play with authority from the right hash mark with 3:25 to go in the period. NU held the lead and took the 2-0 advantage into the break.
 
The Falcons (7-13-3; 6-6-2 AHA) would tie the game with a pair of goals in the first five minutes of the second period to send the game into the third and final period tied at 2-2.
 
Entering the game with just five defenseman in the lineup, Niagara was able to kill off two power-plays at the beginning of the third period to keep things tied until Smith was able to send a rocket into the net for the lead and the first goal of his career. TJ Sarcona found the freshman open at the left point where Smith held on and, without any sort of traffic in front, beat the goalie clean. Sarcona's assist was his second of the night.
 
An Air Force goal with just over three minutes remaining in regulation tied the game at 3-3 and sent the contest into overtime. A little bit of puck luck in the extra period helped the hosts secure the win. The puck was flipped out in front from the corner, hit a skater in front, and found its way into the back of the net to give the Falcons a 4-3 win.
 
"It was just a terrible outcome," said Burkholder. "I thought we deserved a lot better than that, but it came down to scrambles that they found and batted home. To start the game with a short bench and only five defensemen, I'm glad to have the guys compete as well as they did. Hopefully we'll have a shot at these guys later on down the season."
 
Dzakhov added an assist on the Smith goal in the third period to tie Sarcona for a team-high two points. Isaac Kohls' assist on the Edwards goal moves him into the team-lead with 10 points on the season. Jackson Teichroeb finished with 33 saves on the night and the Niagara penalty kill unit went a perfect 5-for-5.
 
The Purple Eagles will travel home tonight and head back west next weekend when they take on No. 1 North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota.