FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Nick Cecere and Chris Lochner both tallied in the Niagara Purple Eagles' 5-2 loss on Friday night to the Sacred Heart Pioneers at the Milford Ice Pavilion.
 
The Purple Eagles (3-13-1; 3-9-1 AHA) found themselves down early after the Pioneers (6-11-2; 5-6-2 AHA) scored two minutes into the opening frame, but NU took advantage of the man-advantage to send the game into the intermission tied at 1-1. Isaac Kohls got the puck in the left corner and found Cecere open at the point. The junior defensemen fired a shot that found its way through traffic to the back of the net. The tally was Cecere's second power-play goal of the season.
 
Sacred Heart scored a pair of goals eight minutes apart in the second and added another early in the third to go up 4-1. The first came on a one-timer from the slot at the 6:07 mark and a deflection in front doubled the lead with 14:25 expired in the second. A fluky goal increased the lead to three as Jackson Teichroeb got a piece of the original shot with his glove, but the puck jumped up and over the netminder and was shoveled into the cage by a crashing Pioneer.
 
"As a staff you wonder how your team is going to respond after a break, being off that long, and Sacred Heart had the luxury of having two games last weekend and it showed," head coach Dave Burkholder said. "They had a little more zip and a little more jump tonight."
 
Lochner scored his second goal of the season seven minutes into the third period to cut the deficit to 4-2. The senior took a feed from Dan Kolenda as he went from left-to-right and went top shelf to pop the water bottle and bring his team to within two. Cecere added the secondary assist for his second point of the game. SHU was able to score a late power-play goal to come away with a 5-2 win.
 
"Our compete level was there in the first and third, but in the second they took over the game by winning little one-on-one battles and outworking us," said Burkholder.
 
Teichroeb made 31 saves in the loss. The NU penalty kill went 5-for-6 on the night with the lone goal surrendered coming with under a minute left in the game. Kevin Albers added an assist on the Cecere goal for his fourth helper of the year.  
 
These two teams go head-to-head again tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m.