NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – The Niagara Purple Eagles fell behind early and could never catch up as they dropped a 7-3 decision to the RIT Tigers on Friday night at Dwyer Arena.
 
The Tigers scored three goals over the opening 12 minutes of the first period to take a 3-0 lead before Stanislav Dzakhov responded for the Purple Eagles. The Moscow native took a pass from Lawrence Smith and carried the puck into the zone. He set up along the right wing boards and fired a shot through traffic that founds an opening five hole and cut the deficit to 3-1 with four minutes to play in the period.
 
"I wouldn't say we were flat. For a team that's frustrated, we're letting adversity affect us," said head coach Dave Burkholder. "We had a couple key turnovers that ended up in the back of our net."
 
Chris Lochner scored the Purple Eagles' third shorthanded goal in the last four games at the 8:46 mark of the second period. RIT scored a pair of goals to open the frame before Dan Kolenda carried the puck into the Tigers zone on the 2-on-1 rush and hit Lochner in the slot with a pass. Lochner fired a wrist shot that brought NU within three before a late goal sent RIT into the intermission up 6-2.
 
RIT added one more goal in the third to take a 7-2 lead with 10 minutes remaining. Nick Cecere scored his third of the season with just over a minute remaining with a bullet from the point to bring the game to its 7-3 final.
 
Jackson Teichroeb made 37 saves in the loss. Eleven of those saves came in the opening period.
 
"Quite frankly, the first period should have been a lot more [lopsided] and we actually told Jackson that," Burkholder said. "We thanked him and apologized for the effort in front of him."
 
Niagara and RIT go head-to-head again tomorrow night in Rochester, NY with a 7:05 p.m. face-off at the Gene Polisseni Center. The game will be shown live on the Time Warner Cable SportsChannel.