MINNEAPOLIS – For the second straight night, the Niagara men's hockey team showed fight against Big Ten opponent Minnesota. The Purple Eagles got off to a rocking start when Dylan Mills scored in front of the hometown crowd, but the Golden Gophers ultimately came away with a 4-2 win.
 
Game Recap

• Mills opened the scoring just 35 seconds into the game. The native of nearby Cottage Grove blasted a heavy shot from distance that settled into the mesh for the quick Niagara lead.
• In his first career start, Chad Veltri stonewalled the Golden Gophers on a 3-on-1 rush to hold the lead. Minnesota countered quickly following a heavy Niagara onslaught, only to see Veltri come across the goal mouth and glove the shot from in close.
• Niagara earned its first power play of the game late in the second period. Ludwig Stenlund ripped a one-tiimer wide before Edgerton put the puck on net and forced a faceoff to the right of the Gopher goalie. Stenlund and Justin Kendall got two more good chances following the faceoff to keep the pressure on.
• Moments after the Gophers killed off their infraction, they were whistled for a second. Stenlund again managed a tough shot but it was shrugged off with a right shoulder save.
• Minnesota misplayed a puck behinds its end line and gifted it to Cam Cook. Cook popped the puck out in front to a charging Reed Robinson, who had no hesitation and leveled the score at 2-2 65 seconds into the third period.
• Niagara was called for a five-minute major with 15 minutes to go in the third. Minnesota scored 27 seconds into the man-advantage but Niagara held steady for the remainder to get back to even strength down only one goal.
• With less than six minutes remaining, Jack Billings blasted a shot off the crossbar, nearly tying the game. About a minute later, Niagara won a faceoff to the left of the Minnesota net and Luke Edgerton took a shot as he fell to his knees, but it was steered into the corner.

 
Beyond The Boxscore

• After nearly scoring in the first minute last night, Niagara once again found itself with an early lead on a Big Ten opponent. Last season, Robinson scored 69 seconds into the team's first game at Penn State, exactly one year ago on October 19, 2018.

 
Coach's Corner

• Head coach Jason Lammers: "We love our attitude and we love our guys. I thought we showed a lot of promise this weekend. […] We're big on attitude and we didn't quit. No matter what the score was, we kept going. […] I loved our compete. I thought after last night our guys had a newfound confidence, so that's really exciting. I thought our leaders did a nice job. And I think we're a little better than when we got into town."
• On Veltri's first career start: "[Veltri] is really calm and gives us a lot of confidence, and you could see that tonight."
• On Mills' goal in front of his friends and family: "They were pumped for [Mills]. It was a big goal for him and they were excited. Again, that's one of the guys that shows a lot of promise here on our team. I thought we showed a lot individually and I thought we showed a lot as a group, so we're excited to get home and get back to work."

 
Up Next

• Niagara hosts Sacred Heart to open the home portion of its schedule when the Pioneers visit Dwyer Arena on Friday night. Puck drop on October 25 will be at 7:05 p.m.

 
 
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