Men's Ice Hockey Falls To Niagara, 6-2

The Quinnipiac University men's ice hockey team lost a non-conference match-up to Niagara, 6-2, at the TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Conn. With the loss, Quinnipiac drops to 13-10-1 overall while Niagara improves to 7-13-2 on the season.

Greg Holt (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) scored his sixth goal of the season, to break a string of four unanswered Niagara goals to open the game, with 32 seconds to play in the second period. Freshman Ben Arnt (Oakdale, Minn.) scored his first career goal with three seconds remaining in the game.

For Niagara, six different skaters scored for the Purple Eagles, while goalie Andrew Hare made 48 saves. Quinnipiac nearly doubled-up Niagara in the shots category, 50-26, but was only able to score twice.

"We had 50 shots on net and had 106 attempted shots, so we were generating the offense. Our guys are competing and we have to find a way to get the puck in the net," Quinnipiac Head Coach Rand Pecknold said. "Give [Niagara goalie] Andrew Hare a lot of credit, he played great and competed. He was the best player on the ice tonight. Sometimes you just run into a hot goalie."

Niagara jumped out to an early lead with a pair of goals in the first period. The first goal of the game by Wes Consorti was his first of the season, with assists going to Tyler Matthews and Dave Baco. Consorti punched in a loose puck in the crease off a rebound on a blocked shot by Quinnipiac starter Dan Clarke (Belleville, Ont.). Niagara's leading scorer, Chris Moran, scored his fourth goal of the season less than a minute later when Ryan Olidis dropped the puck behind the goal where Moran picked it up. The senior wing skated out from behind the net and blasted a shot past Clarke to send Niagara into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.

Baco picked up his second point of the night on his second goal of the season a the 7:40 mark with an assist going to Consorti. The goal ended Clarke's night as he gave way to freshman Mathieu Cadieux (Oshawa, Ont.). Cadieux blanked Niagara for close to ten minutes before Paul Zanette sniped a shot that beat Cadieux glove-side to give the Purple Eagles a four-goal lead.

Holt's goal just before the end of the second period came off a broken clear deep in the Niagara zone. Senior captain Jean-Marc Beaudoin (St. Paul, Alb.) dug the puck out the corner and sent it up the boards. Sophomore Scott Zurevinski (Saskatoon, Sask.) tapped the puck back to Holt, who unleashed a shot from the left face-off circle that cleared Hare's shoulder to put Quinnipiac on the board.

Niagara scored twice in the first nine minutes of the third period on goals by Jason Beattie and Bryan Haczyk. Beattie's goal was assisted by Giancarlo Iuorio while Haczyk's gave Niagara a five-goal cushion (6-1) with 11:23 on the clock. Arnt's goal came on assists by Clay Harvey (Gull Lake, Sask.) and Zack Currie (Victoria, B.C.).

The Bobcats and Purple Eagles close-out their weekend series on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. at the TD Bank Sports Center. The game can be viewed live on the Niagara Sports Network or Fox College Sports Pacific on Channels 617 or 623 on DirecTV.