HAMDEN, Conn. – The Quinnipiac University men’s hockey team lost the second game of their weekend series against Niagara University, 5-3, on Saturday night. The Bobcats drop to 14-7-3 overall while Niagara improves to 15-8-1 on the season.

Niagara once again scored first to take an early lead. Les Reaney scored his fifth goal of the season on a pass from Chris Moran, who picked up his eighth assist of the year. Moran received the pass from David Ross who then found Reaney out in front of the Bobcats’ goal. The assist was Ross’ fourth of the season.

The Bobcats answered with a pair of shorthanded goals, coming one minute, two seconds apart. After Zach Hansen (Winter Bear Lake, Minn.) was whistled for cross checking, Jean-Marc Beaudoin (St. Paul, Alb.) scored his fourth shorthanded goal of the season, while Dan LeFort (Toronto, Ont.) scored his first goal of the season and first since his gamewinner against Cornell on March 9, 2007  in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals.

Beaudoin's goal knotted the score at 1-1 with just over 10 minutes to play in the first period. Josh Duncan (Rochester, Minn.) dug the puck out from behind the Bobcats net and passed it out to Brandon Wong (Victoria, B.C.) at the blue line. Wong then found Beaudoin breaking out down the right flank. After Beaudoin made a quick move, the sophomore wing slipped the puck between the legs of the defender and then dropped a shot past Juliano Pagliero to the lower right corner. The goal was Beaudoin’s ninth goal of the season.

LeFort gave Quinnipiac the lead, 2-1, just over a minute later on an assist from Eric Lampe (Madison, Wisc.). Lampe handled the puck behind the Niagara goal, hesitated and then found LeFort out in front. LeFort hesitated long enough for Pagliero to drop down before slipping it past the Purple Eagles’ goalie.

The two shorthanded goals on the same power play were the first by a Quinnipiac team since Lampe and LeFort scored back-to-back goals with a man down against Holy Cross on Jan. 28, 2007. Those two goals came just 31 seconds apart.

Niagara tied the scored, 2-2, just under two minutes into the second period. Tyler Gotto scored his second goal of the year, unassisted, on a blast from the left face-off circle. The Purple Eagles took a 3-2 lead at the 11:18 mark when Ted Cook handled the puck behind the Bobcats’ goal. Cook passed the puck out to Ryan Annesly out in front of the net who redirected the pass to Matt Caruana on the left side of the crease. Caruana one-timed the pass past Bud Fisher (Peterborough, Ont.) to give the Purple Eagles the one-goal lead.

Freshman Isak Tranvik (Robbinsdale, Minn.) tied the score at the 9:19 mark of the second period. LeFort passed from the right flank to the center of the ice to Mike Atkinson (Sparta, N.J.) who was tangled up with a Niagara defenseman. Atkinson dropped the puck off to Tranvik, who was streaking untouched to the net. Tranvik’s one-timer beat Pagliero to the top right corner to tie the game at 3-3. The goal was Tranvik’s first at the TD Banknorth Sports Center of his collegiate career.

Niagara took the lead back at the 3:34 mark when Kyle Rogers scored his sixth goal of the season on a pass from Vince Rocco for his 16^th assist of the year. The Purple Eagles would score again to take a 5-3 lead with just over 13 minutes remaining in the final period. Moran scored his sixth goal of the year on an assist from Paul Zanette.

In goal, Pagliero had 32 saves for Niagara while Quinnipiac’s Fisher totaled 21 saves. Pat McGann (Evergreen Park, Ill.) played the final 13:14 in net for the Bobcats, totaling four saves while holding Niagara scoreless.

Quinnipiac will travel to Troy, N.Y. on Friday, Feb. 1 to face Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in an ECAC Hockey match-up at the Houston Field House at 7 p.m. The Bobcats will then head to Schenectady, N.Y. on Saturday, Feb. 2 to play Union at Messa Rink at 7 p.m.