SPRINGFIELD, Mass.  — Jay Ahearn scored twice in the first period and Pierce Charleson made a career-high 56 saves as Niagara held on for a 2-1 victory over American International on Saturday night.
 
How it Happened
Ahearn opened the scoring at 14:57 of the first period, tipping in a shot from Glebs Prohorenkovs. Just 88 seconds later, the duo connected again, with Shane Ott adding a helper on Ahearn's eighth goal of the season to give the Purple Eagles (7-4-3, 6-2-2) a 2-0 lead.
 
Charleson stood tall in net, particularly in the third period when he turned away 22 shots. The Yellow Jackets (3-9-1, 2-5-0) finally broke through at 1:50 of the third when Timofei Khokhlachev scored off an assist from Brett Rylance, but couldn't find the equalizer despite outshooting Niagara 57-34.
 
Prohorenkovs finished with two assists for Niagara, which killed all three AIC power plays and won its third straight game.
 
The Yellow Jackets pulled their goalie with just over three minutes remaining but couldn't solve Charleson, who secured his seventh win of the season.
 
Niagara Notes
• The Purple Eagles improve to 16-20-5 all-time against AIC.
• Saturday's win was NU's first on the road over the Yellow Jackets since Nov. 24, 2017, and just the programs second win the last 10 meetings.
• NU has been outshot in five of its seven wins this season.
• The Purple Eagles blocked 17 shots, tied for the third most in a game this season.
• Charleson stopped 56 of 57 shots, surpassing his previous career-high of 54 set against Minnesota on Nov. 8, 2022.
• The last NU goalie to notch 50 or more saves in a game was Joe O'Brien, who stopped 55 shots against Penn State on Oct. 19, 2018.  
• Ahearn notched two goals for the second time this season and third time in his career.
 
Up Next
Niagara will cap off its two-game set with AIC on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 3 p.m. from the MassMutual Center.