Men's Ice Hockey 2/26/2015 1:37:00 PM

Hockey Ends Regular Season Against Robert Morris

As the final home regular season game of the 2014-15 season, Friday night will be Senior Night at Dwyer Arena. The game will feature a pregame ceremony to honor the four seniors on the roster: Kevin Albers, Sam Alfieri, Isaac Kohls, and Chris Lochner.
Together they have: a combined 59-65-23 (.403) record, one AHA Regular Season Championship (2012-13), one NCAA Tournament as the first at large bid for the AHA (2012-13), one second-place regular season finish where they were one point out of first (2011-12), and three straight trips to Blue Cross Arena and AHA Championships which is the most in the AHA in the last three years.

History 101

The Purple Eagles are 0-2-0 this season against RMU after dropping both games of the home-and-home in October.
This late-season match-up will begin on Friday at Dwyer Arena where the Purple Eagles have an 18-5-3 record against the Colonials.
The season series, and the regular season, end at 84 Lumber Arena where NU holds a 7-7-6 record.
The series began with a 4-4 draw on Jan. 28, 2005 at Robert Morris, before the Colonials took game two of the all-time series 6-0 the following day.
Niagara's first win over the Colonials came on March 5, 2005 when it took game two of that season's playoff series by a 3-1 score. It won the series with a 5-1 victory in game three.
Niagara was on a seven game unbeaten streak (3-0-4) in games vs. the Colonials at the 84 Lumber Arena dating back to 2008-09 season before the 6-5 OT loss on Feb. 16, 2013.

Last Time Out

Despite drastically outshooting the Robert Morris Colonials, the Niagara Purple Eagles dropped a 4-1 loss on Oct. 18.
Niagara nearly doubled-up Robert Morris 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.

Taking On The Colonials

Several Purple Eagles have fond memories going up against Robert Morris. Hugo Turcotte (11/17/12), Tyler Akeson (10/19/13), and Brock Edwards (10/19/13) all recorded their first career goal against the Colonials.
Phil Nasca (10/19/13) recorded his first collegiate point against RMU while Patrick Conte (2/13/14) collected his first assist.
TJ Sarcona collected a career-best two assists on March 21, 2014.
Lawrence Smith tallied his first career point with an assist against RMU on Oct. 18, 2014.
Former Purple Eagle captain Matt Caruana became a member of the 100-point club with a pair of goals against RMU on Nov. 9, 2007.

Waiting Is The Hardest Part

The Purple Eagles had to wait awhile between wins, but got back into the win column with a gargantuan effort on Feb. 20 with a 6-1 win over Air Force.
Niagara had nine players find the score sheet that night. Niagara built a 4-0 lead through the opening 40 minutes as Kohls, Stanislav Dzakhov, Matt Chartrain, and Dan Kolenda all crashed the net and converted from around the doorstep. Sarcona added two goals in the third to give his team the 6-1 win.
The top line of Dzakhov-Sarcona-Kohls combined for seven points (4g, 3a) on the night.
NU followed up the win with a gutsy effort to pull out a 4-4 tie on Feb. 21.
Second-period goals from Alfieri and Kohls kept Niagara within striking distance before Brock Edwards and Keegan Harper both scored in the third to send the game into overtime.
Harper, Edwards, and Turcotte finished with two points apiece. Sarcona assisted on Kohls' tally to give them both a team-high four points on the weekend.

Success Against Bobby Mo

Turcotte has found some success against the Robert Morris Colonials this season.
He scored his first shorthanded goal of the season in the 5-2 loss on Oct. 17. The tally gave his team a 2-1 lead in the second period.
Turcotte added a power play goal the next night on Oct. 18. The tally pulled his team within 2-1 in the second.

Players Mentioned