BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Niagara Purple Eagles hockey team entered Sunday night with a chance to eliminate its archrival Canisius Golden Griffins from the playoffs and move on to the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals. In the end, however, it was the Golden Griffins who emerged with a 4-1 victory at the HARBORCENTER.
 
Johnny Curran scored the lone goal for Niagara, which outshot Canisius 38-25 but could not rekindle the offense that they created in Friday night's series-opening win. Stanislav Dzakhov and Niko Kovachis picked up the assists, while Derian Plouffe, Matt Chiarantano, and Dzakhov led the team with five shots on goal. Jackson Teichroeb gave up three goals on 24 shots with an empty-net goal coming in the closing minutes.
 
"Early in the game, I thought we had time and space," head coach Dave Burkholder said. "We dominated [early], but they came down and scored on a rush. I thought we had all the momentum in the world, we just had to score the first goal and I thought it would be a different game."
 
For the second straight night, Niagara (6-25-6, 5-18-5 Atlantic Hockey) and Canisius played to a scoreless first period as both teams took aim at dictating the pace of the game. The Purple Eagles got a strong shift from Sam Rennaker, Plouffe, and Curran midway through the period that generated the best scoring chances. The two teams each generated ten first-period shots, but Niagara's defense took the lead in the blocked shots category, 9-4, through 20 minutes of play.
 
Canisius (12-20-5, 10-13-5 Atlantic Hockey) broke the game open with a two-goal effort in the second period. Midway through the second, the Golden Griffins broke out on a three-on-one chance and Shane Conacher fed Mike Sabatini for a tap-in shot. Just over two minutes later, Canisius scored on the power play. With Niko Kovachis in the penalty box, Conacher rose to the high slot and sent a wrist shot over the blocker of Teichroeb for the 2-0 lead, which would hold through the rest of the second.
 
Niagara peppered Canisius' Simon Hofley with 17 shots in the third period, but the Purple Eagles were only able to get one goal out of it. Cameron Heath stretched the Canisius lead to three before Curran scored his third of the year. With Teichroeb pulled for the extra attacker, Kovachis fed a puck into Dzakhov to the right of Hofley. The sophomore dropped a backhand pass between his legs to Curran in front of the net, and Curran put the shot just outside the glove of Hofley at the 16:51 mark of the third.
 
The Purple Eagles pulled Teichroeb again looking for another goal, but Canisius' David Parrottino buried a long shot for the empty-net tally that sealed the score at 4-1. The loss in Game Three ends the Purple Eagles' season, and ends the careers of the five seniors on the roster.
 
"I think Matt Dineen and Nick Cecere are two of the greatest captains to ever play here," Burkholder said. "For them to hold the ship together like they did, we're going to miss them. Two great people, great students, and hockey players, just heart-and-soul guys."
 
Niagara concludes the 2015-16 season with an overall record of 6-25-6 after going 5-18-5 in Atlantic Hockey play during the regular season. Niagara looks ahead to the start of the 2016-17 season in October.
 
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