BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Purple Eagles hockey team and the Canisius Golden Griffins engaged in a tremendous defensive battle at the HARBORCENTER Saturday night. Niagara outshot Canisius 33-31, but Canisius' Dylan McLaughlin scored the only goal in a 1-0 Niagara loss.
 
Albin Karlsson and Stanislav Dzakhov led the Niagara attack with five shots apiece, but the Purple Eagles (6-24-6, 5-18-5 Atlantic Hockey) failed to score on Simon Hofley just one night after scoring three times on 17 shots. Niagara got 16 more blocked shots in the loss, including three each for juniors TJ Sarcona and Stephen Pietrobon.
 
"It was a great game back and forth," head coach Dave Burkholder said. "The momentum swings were unbelievable both ways. Unfortunately, they got a play on the rush…and they went down and the kid made a play at the top of the crease. It was a good game both ways."
 
Both teams came out firing in the first period, shooting pucks from any available angle to try and get an early lead. Neither Teichroeb nor Canisius' Hofley would be beaten in the opening 20 minutes, however, with the junior Teichroeb making nine saves for the Purple Eagles. Niagara was also able to kill off two power plays credited to the Golden Griffins (11-20-5, 10-13-5 Atlantic Hockey).
 
Niagara was robbed on multiple great scoring chances to start the second period. Stephen Pietrobon passed up a breakaway shot on the first rush of the period, and Johnny Curran was robbed by Hofley twice in a row off a rebound from Niko Kovachis.
 
At the 12:42 mark of the second period, it was Canisius who got on the board. The Golden Griffins had two wide-open shots at the net that did not find the mark, but McLaughlin found the back of the net after Felix Chamberland weaved through the Niagara defense.
 
The Purple Eagles had their chances early in the third period as well, but could not solve Hofley. Nick Cecere had the best chances of the opening five minutes, ripping two slap shots just over the glove of the Canisius freshman netminder. Canisius outshot the Purple Eagles 12-10 in the final stanza, and despite a late Niagara rush with the goaltender pulled, the second-period goal from McLaughlin held up as the game-winner.
 
With Canisius evening the best-of-three series at one game apiece, the Battle of the Bridge rivals will square off in a decisive third game tomorrow night at the HARBORCENTER. Opening faceoff is set for 5:05 p.m., and Jeremy White will have the radio call on 1340 AM WLVL and PurpleEagles.com/Watch.
 
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