USAF Academy, CO—The Niagara hockey team made the trip to Colorado to take on the Air Force Falcons in the first game of a vital weekend Atlantic Hockey weekend series. Despite taking a two goal lead in the second period, the Purple Eagles fell 6-3 to the Falcons.
Game Recap
First Period

• Neither team took the lead in the first period. However, at the 3:42 mark of the period, Air Force appeared to have scored. After a lengthy review after challenge by Head Coach Jason Lammers, the play was deemed offsides and it was wiped off the board.
• Ryan Ouellette made his second start as a Purple Eagle in net and made nine saves in the opening period. Eight different Purple Eagles registered a shot on goal in the first period.
• The Purple Eagles blocked 10 shots in the first period, while Lucas Bahn and Lane Brockhoff each blocked two shots.
• Glebs Prohorenkovs won three faceoffs in the first while Ryan Cox won three.

Second Period

• At the 3:39 mark of the period, Shane Ott forced a turnover in the neutral zone and broke into the Air Force zone. Ott flew into the zone and fed a cross crease pass to Lar Rodne who scored his sixth goal of the season on the back door.
• Following the second period media timeout, Ryan Cox won the faceoff right to Casey Carreau. Carreau ripped a wicked wrister into the net for his sixth goal of the season. For Carreau it was his team leading 20^th points while Cox notched his 19^th point which is second on the team.
• Just 24 seconds after the Niagara goal, Air Force cut the Purple Eagle lead in half. The Falcons scored at the 14:41 mark to tie the game at two.
• With less than a second remaining on the clock, Air Force scored to take the 3-2 lead.
• The Purple Eagles won 14 of 19 faceoffs in the second period and held a 22-15 record in the faceoff dot after 40 minutes of play.

Third Period

• Air Force made it a 4-2 game just 3:25 into the period.
• After Niagara killed off multiple penalties, the Purple Eagles pulled goaltender Chad Veltri, who took over to start the third. With 4:22 left in the third the Purple Eagles had the extra attacker. With 3:20 left in regulation, Ryan Naumovski took a wide shott off the end boards. Rodne picked up his second point of the game while Josef Mysak picked up his ninth assist of the season.
• Air Force scored a pair of empty net goals just 12 seconds apart.

Niagara Notes

• Niagara and Air Force were both tied for 10^th in the nation in faceoff percentage entering the game. The Purple Eagles won 34 faceoffs and 54.8 percent of the faceoffs. Prohorenkovs went 12-6 in the faceoff circle and Cox went 9-4 in the dot.
• The Purple Eagles killed off all four Falcon power plays which was over 12 minutes with the man advantage. Air Force had just five shots on the power play.
• Niagara goalies turned away 24 shots while the defense core blocked 15 shots. Jonathan Ziskie, Bahn, and Noah Carlin all blocked two shots while Brockoff blocked a team high three shots.

Up Next

• The Purple Eagles and Falcons close out their weekend series tomorrow evening at 6 PM EST.