The Niagara hockey team was swept by UConn in an Atlantic Hockey showdown as the Huskies routed the Purple Eagles, 2-1 on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum.
For the second consecutive night the Huskies would score their game-winning goal while on the power play, making it a 2-1 contest at 7:14 of the third to pull ahead of the Purps. With 16 seconds remaining on the man-advantage Jacob Poe scored the go-ahead goal as his shot hit the back of the net past Niagara goaltender Jackson Teichroeb to keep NU winless on the road this season.
Niagara (3-11-1; 3-4-1 AHA) continued to struggle on special teams, going 0-for-5 on the power play during Saturday’s contest, and 0-for-13 on the weekend, while killing off 6-of-7 UConn power play opportunities Saturday and 10-of-12 overall.
The first goal of the afternoon, and only tally of the opening period, came against UConn (6-5-2; 5-2-1 AHA) as Mike Conderman deflected in his fourth tally of the year at 10:24 of the first. Freshman Brock Edwards swung the puck to Kevin Patterson who released a shot from the point that was tipped by Conderman before sneaking under UConn goaltender Matt Grogan.
Despite holding the lead heading into the first intermission, the lopsided shot count was in favor of the Huskies, 17-8.
UConn’s first of two goals came at 1:49 of the second period as Patrick Kirtland got the puck up to Shawn Pauly whose snipe past Teichroeb rang off the bottom of the crossbar into the cage to set the teams even.
The Purple Eagles came close to regaining the lead midway through the second while on the power play. An Edwards’ shot from faceoff circle bounced around in front of the crease and jumped out to Isaac Kohls for the easy tap in into an open net, but the junior couldn’t get enough power on the shot and it was recovered by Grogan.
Teichroeb pushed aside 30 Husky shots. UConn outshot Niagara, 32-22 on the game.
Niagara will take part in the program’s first-ever outdoor game as the Purple Eagles will play RIT in the Greater Rochester Area Honda Dealers Frozen Frontier on Saturday, Dec. 14 at Frontier Field. The teams will faceoff at 7:05 p.m., with the makeup contest scheduled for the following day in case of inclement weather.
