NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. Freshman Ryan Polin (Holt, Mich.) scored the first two goals of his collegiate career to help propel American International College past Niagara University, 4-2, in Atlantic Hockey Conference action this evening from Dwyer Arena.

The Yellow Jackets improve to 2-11-0 on the year and 2-6 in Atlantic Hockey play while the Purple Eagles drop to 1-7-2 overall and 1-2-1 in conference action.

Niagara controlled the opening 20 minutes from start to finish outshooting the Jackets 16-1, but sophomore goaltender Alex Murray (Burlington, Ont.) stopped them all including six on the penalty kill as AIC was a perfect 2-for-2 on the PK in the first period.

AIC came out much stronger in the second and jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first 13:52. Early in the second they took advantage of a pair of hooking calls which resulted in a five-on-three power-play opportunity.

Just 20 ticks into the chance it was junior Carson Grolla (Trail, B.C.) cycling the puck down to sophomore Johno May (Mahtomedi, Minn.) who then found junior Austin Orszulak in the slot and he used a great screen of the goalie to pick the blocker side at 1:49 for the 1-0 edge.

Then during another power-play chance it was Polin who ripped a shot from the point that deflected out in front of the net and past Purple Eagle freshman Guillaume Therien (Mirabel, Que.) at 7:45 for the 2-0 lead.

Polin then made it 3-0 as he crashed the net receiving a great pass from sophomore Giovanni Bombini (Edmonton, Alb.) at 13:52 to chase Therien and make the score 3-0.

The Purple Eagles got one back less than two minutes later as sophomore Derian Plouffe (Shawville, Q.C.) found the back of the net at 15:04 for the 3-1 margin.

The third period began as a hard skating back-and-forth period with some hard hitting and checking before Niagara broke through for a rebound score at 14:04 to cut the deficit to a single goal.

Senior Dan Kolenda (Superior, Wisc.) cashed in on the doorstep after sophomore Larry Smith's (Grand Island, N.Y.) initial bid was saved by Murray for the 3-2 score.

The Purple Eagles opted for the empty net coming out of a timeout with 1:24 to play and they had some good chances, but Murray came up big on multiple occasions and senior Chris Porter (Stouffville, Ont.) added an empty netter at 19:50 for the final score

Murray stopped 36 pucks to improve to 2-6 on the year with the victory as Therien falls to 0-7-1 after stopping seven shots over the first 33:52 of game play. Freshman Joe O'Brien (Brentwood, Mo.) collected six saves over the final 26:02.

AIC was outshot 38-17 but went 2-for-4 with the mad-advantage and were a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty-kill.

AIC next travels to Holy Cross for a Tuesday night affair with puck drop scheduled for 7:05 p.m.