Erie, Pa.—The Niagara hockey team defeated the Mercyhurst Lakers on Tuesday night in Erie, the Purple Eagles skated away with a 4-1 win over the Lakers.
First Period
The Purple Eagles opened the scoring just ahead of the midway mark of the opening period. Jack Richard skated the puck out of the Niagara zone and went on an odd man rush with Shane Ott and Lars Rodne. Richard passed the puck to Ott, Ott passed the puck back to Richard who rifled home a one timer into the top corner of the net for his sixth goal of the season. Ott picked up his 12th assist of the season on the play. Jarrett Fiske also picked up his third assist of the season on the play.
After the opening period shots were tied at eight while Niagara held a 10-7 advantage in the faceoff circle. Glebs Prohorenkovs had five faceoff wins to lead the team.
Second Period
The Purple Eagles took a two-goal lead just 1:14 into the second period as Tyler Wallace scored his team leading 10th goal of the season. Rodne banked the puck off the boards to Ott who gained the Mercyhurst line and looked for a pass. He found a streaking Josef Mysak and hit him with a perfect pass. Mysak rang it off the post and the rebound came right to Wallace who buried it to give Niagara a 2-1 lead. Ott notched his 13th assist of the season while Mysak got his 10th.
Nearly eight minutes later, Niagara took a 3-0 lead over the Lakers as Drew Vieten notched his third of the season. Niagara had pressure in the Mercyhurst zone and Aron Jessli played the puck to Christian Gorscak. Gorscak took a wrister from the right point that Vieten deflected past the goalie to give Niagara a three-goal advantage.
Mercyhurst got on the board at the 15:24 mark to make it 3-1.
After two periods, Niagara led 22-13 in shots after outshooting Mercyhurst 14-5 in the second period.
Third Period
The third period saw 26 combined shots with each team tallying 13. Neither team could solve each other's goalies. Mercyhurst pulled their goalie following a timeout with 3:19 left of the clock.
Niagara held off the pressure from the Lakers on the six on five and limited their shots. With about 50 seconds left in regulation Ott broke up a pass and won a battle and went in on the empty net with the puck to secure a three-point night for the junior.
Niagara Notes
· Fiske made 25 saves as he returned to his hometown. He moves to 12-8-2 on the year and 22-16-6 in his career. With the win over Mercyhurst, he has now defeated all 11 Atlantic Hockey teams in his career. Fiske is the only active Atlantic Hockey goalie to have beaten all 11 AHA teams.
· Ott notched his fourth multi point game of the season and his second three-point game of his career. Both games have came against Mercyhurst.
· Niagara is now 11-0-2 this season when scoring four or more goals.
· There was just one power play for each team in the game, Niagara held Mercyhurst to just one shot on their lone power play.
· Niagara is now 24-19-7 against Mercyhurst all-time.
· Gorscak skated in his 100th career game against Mercyhurst. He is now one of six Purple Eagles to play in 100 career games. Five of the six have played at least 100 games with the Purple Eagles.
· The Purple Eagles dominated the faceoff circle winning 61.0% of draws. Prohorenkovs was 13-5 in the circle while all four listed centers had at least six faceoff wins.
· Niagara now has 38 points and is tied for the fourth spot in the Atlantic Hockey standings with Air Force and AIC. Niagara has the tiebreaker over AIC and Air Force.
Up Next
The Purple Eagles and Lakers square off on Thursday at Dwyer Arena as the Purple Eagles will host season ticket holder appreciation night and senior night. Faceoff is slated for 7 PM.
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