ATLANTIC HOCKEY FIRST ROUND (Best of Three Series)
No. 11 AIC YELLOW JACKETS at No. 6 NIAGARA PURPLE EAGLES
Friday, Saturday, Sunday (if necessary), 7:05 p.m. - Live Stats / Lives Video / Live Audio
SETTING THE SCENE: The 11th-seeded American International College hockey team will return to Dwyer Arena for the second time this season as they kick off their drive for the Atlantic Hockey Championship with a first-round series against 6th-seeded Niagara University.
WHEN AND WHERE: The series is a best-of-three at Niagara's Dwyer Arena in Niagara, N.Y., on the Niagara Campus. The games will take place Friday, Saturday, and Sunday if necessary, with all games slated for 7:05 p.m. puck drops. For directions to the arena click here; for ticket information click here.
LAST TIME THEY MET: The Yellow Jackets split their season series at Niagara, winning 6-2 on January 10 before falling 5-0 on January 11. Senior left wing Jon Puskar (Canton, Mich.) had a four-goal night in the win, while junior right wing Jason Popek (Hamilton, Ont.) opened and closed the goal scoring. Freshman Hunter Leisner (Garland, Texas) started both contests, going 1-1-0 on the weekend while playing all 120 minutes.
ABOUT THE PURPLE EAGLES: Niagara comes into the contest having finished the regular season at 11-18-5, with an 11-11-5 mark in AHA play. Junior Issac Kohls led the team in scoring, with 12 goals and 12 assists for 24 points; sophomore Hugo Turcotte had nine goals and a team-best 14 assists for 23 points, senior Ryan Rashid had 10 goals and freshman T.J. Sarcona had 11 tallies. In goal, the Eagles have split time between two rookies, as Jackson Teichroeb has 20 starts with a 5-12-3 record, a 2.91 GAA and a .900 SV% and Adrian Ignagni has started 14 games with a 6-6-2 record, a 3.11 GAA and a .900 SV%.
ABOUT THE YELLOW JACKETS: AIC heads into the series with a regular season line of 10-23-1, including a 9-18-1 league record. Puskar had the best season of his career, notching 17 goals and 17 assists for 34 points, placing him fifth in the league in goals, while freshman right wing David Norris (Calgary, Alb.) had five goals and a team-record 27 assists for 32 points; their line's center, junior Alexander MacMillan (Calgary, Alb.), had 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points, and sophomore left wing Chris Porter (Stouffville, Ont.) also scored 11 goals this season. In net, Hunter Leisner has carried the load, with an 8-13-1 record in 23 starts to go with a 3.78 GAA and a .899 SV% as well as one shutout.
SPECIAL TEAMS STATISTICS: The Yellow Jackets are the least penalized team in the conference, with just 258 PIM in 34 games, or 7.6 PIM per game, and also rank sixth in the league in PK% at 81.3, having killed 87 of 107 shorthanded situations; interestingly, their power play is 20-for-107, 18.7%, making their special teams balance even. Comparatively, the Purple Eagles average 13.0 PIM per game, with 441 PIM in 34 games this season, and have a PK% of 78.5, having killed 124 of 158 opposing power plays; their own PP is 15-for-144, 10.4%, last in the conference.
ALL-ROOKIE BATTLE: Each team had a player selected to Atlantic Hockey's All-Rookie Team, as Norris was selected for AIC and Niagara defenseman Vincent Muto, who had four goals and 11 assists for 15 points, was picked for the Purple Eagles by the conference's head coaches. Norris and Muto had the primary assist on their respective team's game-winning goals in the two-game set in January, with Norris adding two other assists as well in AIC's win.
UP NEXT: Should the Yellow Jackets advance, they would play either top-seeded Mercyhurst or second-seeded Bentley in the Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals next weekend; the league re-seeds for the Quarterfinal and Semifinal rounds, with the highest seed taking on the lowest seed remaining, so if Army defeats Robert Morris, AIC would head to Bentley, or if Robert Morris advances, AIC plays Mercyhurst.
