HOCKEY
Niagara men fit to be tied in opener
NU women, Canisius fall
LEWISTON — It was the final few minutes of each period that proved the most difficult ticks of the clock for Niagara.
Colgate notched goals late in each period, erasing a 4-1 deficit, as the teams opened the men’s hockey season with a 4-4 draw in front of 1,508 at Dwyer Arena on Friday night.
Meanwhile, the Niagara women’s hockey team dropped a 2-0 decision to RPI in its home opener Friday afternoon.
In the men’s game, Niagara opened with a short-handed goal by Dan Baco and went up, 2-0, on a goal by freshman Brent Vandenberg. Brian Day scored with 2:36 left in the first to cut the lead to 2-1.
In the second, Niagara went up, 4-1, on goals by Ryan Olidis and freshman Marc Zanette, but Colgate continued to hang around when a goal by Nick Prockow with 1:03 left in the period made it 4-2.
In the third, Day scored with 3:46 left with Wayne Poplawski tying the game with 1:21 left in regulation. In overtime, Colgate held a 3-0 advantage in shots but neither team had a solid scoring chance.
“We battled unbelievably hard and we did all the right things the first 40 minutes,” Niagara coach Dave Burkholder said. “We finished our checks, we blocked shots, we had good changes and carried the momentum of play but just couldn’t finish it off.
“We’re trying to win the first two [shifts] and the last two [shifts] of each period and we started with momentum but didn’t take any into the locker room. That was a factor.”
“The last two to three minutes of each period hurt us,” said Vandenberg, who also had an assist. “We had a little bit of mental errors, which cost us a point.”
Adam Avramenko made 26 saves for the Purple Eagles, who play their next six games on the road beginning next Friday game at Clarkson.
Charles Long made 25 saves for Colgate.
In the afternoon, the women had several opportunities, but failed to capitalize, falling to 1-2-0.
“We had opportunities, we just couldn’t finish,” said first-year Niagara coach Chris MacKenzie after the Purple Eagles held a 22-18 advantage in shots. “We’re doing a good job of embracing the systems we want to play. . . . There are some habits we still need to change. There are moments in a game where you can seize momentum and we’ve got to learn to find those.”
The Engineers took a 1-0 lead midway through the second period on a goal by Taylor Horton. Whitney Naslund added an empty-netter with 1:03 left.
Sonja van der Bliek earned the shutout for RPI (2-0-1), while Jenni Bauer had 16 stops for Niagara. Bauer made several quality stops when the Purple Eagles were short-handed as Niagara killed off all nine RPI power plays.
“She has been terrific since day one,” MacKenzie said. “She is solid and if she can keep that up, we’re going to be in one-goal games all year long.”
The same two teams play at 2 p. m. today in Dwyer Arena.
Canisius subdued, 5-1
Canisius dropped its season opener Friday night to Ferris State, 5-1, at the Buffalo State Ice Arena.
Eric Alexander had a goal and two assists, while Zach Redmond had a goal and an assist for the Bulldogs, who split a pair of games with the Golden Griffins last season in Big Rapids, Mich.
Carl Hudson’s power-play goal at 10:13 of the second period pulled Canisius within a goal, but the Bulldogs scored three times in the final period to settle things. Ferris State outshot the Golden Griffins, 44-24.
Canisius has a rematch with the Bulldogs at 7 tonight at Buffalo State.
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