Quinnipiac Dumped by Niagara
HAMDEN, Conn. -- The Quinnipiac University men's ice hockey team
lost a non-conference match-up to Niagara, 6-2, at the TD Bank
Sports Center. 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.












