Quinnipiac's Unbeaten Streak Comes to End

HAMDEN, Conn. -- The Quinnipiac University men's hockey team lost to non-conference opponent Niagara, 5-1, at the TD Banknorth Sports Center in Hamden, Conn. on Friday night. The Bobcats were dealt their first loss since Nov. 30 as their unbeaten streak ends at 10 games. The Bobcats drop to 14-6-3 overall while Niagara improves to 14-8-1.

"I would like to congratulate Niagara," head coach Rand Pecknold said. "They played a great hockey game tonight. They played hard and were physical. [Juliano] Pagliero was excellent in net and without question the better team won tonight."

Niagara jumped out to an early lead when Dan Sullivan scored his second goal of the season at the 8:57 mark. Sullivan was assisted on the goal by Bryan Haczyk and Ryan Olidis.

Bryan Leitch (Coquitlam, B.C.) scored his ninth of the season with just under five minutes to play in the first period. Jamie Bates (Toronto, Ont.) dug the puck out of the corner to the left of the Niagara goal, spun and found Ben Nelson (Spokane, Wash.) in the left face-off circle. Nelson hesitated and then saw Leitch in the far face-off circle. Leitch's blast past Niagara's Juliano Pagliero in goal to the lower right corner tied the game and gave Leitch his 99^th career point. Bates converted on his 14^th assist while Nelson picked up his twelfth.

Niagara went on to score four unanswered goals to push their lead to 5-1 through three periods. Olidis scored with 1:32 remaining in the second period when the Quinnipiac defense failed to clear the puck out of their zone. An errant Quinnipiac pass hit Olidis in his skate, setting up the sophomore wing with a shot from point blank range. Olidis' shot beat Quinnipiac goalie Bud Fisher (Peterborough, Ont.) to the five-hole.

Matt Caruana scored his 12^th goal of the season just over nine minutes into the second period. Caruana's goal, from Kyle Rogers and Scott Langdon, put Niagara on top, 3-1. Ryan Annesley then scored with just under three minutes to play in the second frame to give the Nighthawks a three-goal lead heading into the final period. Les Reaney and Bryan Haczyk both assisted Annesly on the goal.

David Ross added an insurance goal with just under two minutes to play in the game on an assist from Chris Moran.

In goal, Fisher totaled 18 saves while allowing four goals over 57 minutes in net. Pagliero had 30 saves over 59:58 in goal while allowing one goal.

The Bobcats close out their two-game series with the Nighthawks tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 26, at 7:05 p.m at the TD Banknorth Sports Center in Hamden, Conn. The game will be featured on WCTX/MyTV9 in Connecticut, as well as WNGS67/RTN11 in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, N.Y.. The game will also be available on Time Warner Sports Net in Rochester, Albany and Binghamton.