DATE: Feb. 25, 2006
Beavers fall to third place in College Hockey America with two games left in regular season

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. (Dwyer Arena) - The Niagara Purple Eagles scored two goals in the second period and three in the third to build a 5-0 lead en route to a 5-1 victory and a two-game College Hockey America series sweep of Bemidji State.

Randy Harris, who had a hat trick for Niagara in last night’s contest, broke up a scoreless tie 13 minutes into the second period, and Ted Cook scored his 17th goal of the season at 14:46 of the period to provide all the offense Niagara would need.

Vince Rocco scored at 1:15 of the third, Harris scored his second goal of the night and fifth of the series on a power-play opportunity at 8:01, and Les Reaney picked up his

Bemidji State broke up the shutout at 15:14 of the third, picking up its only goal of the night on the third marker of the season from Brandon Marino (Riverside, Calif.). Ryan Huddy (Stony Plain, Alberta) and Blaine Jarvis (Salmon Arm, British Columbia) provided the assists.

Matt Climie (Leduc, Alberta) started and saved a season-high 37 shots in net for the Beavers. He took the loss and saw his season mark drop to 8-7-2.

Jeff Van Nynatten saved 32 of 33 shots faced in goal for the Purple Eagles, picking up the victory and improving to 16-12-0 on the year.

The teams combined for 21 penalties for 50 minutes in the contest. BSU committed 11 penalties for 30 minutes, including a 10-minute misconduct to Andrew Martens (Friendswood, Texas) in the first period, while Niagara drew 10 minor penalties for 20 minutes. Niagara went 2-for-7 on the man advantage, scoring its fourth and fifth goals of the contest on the power play, while BSU went 0-for-7.

The Purple Eagles out-shot BSU 42-33 in the contest, giving them 88 shots on goal in the series.

Tonight’s loss drops Bemidji State to 10-15-4 all-time against Niagara, including a 3-10-1 mark in road games, and gives the Purple Eagles victories in five of the last six meetings in the series overall.

Bemidji State saw its season record fall to 16-13-3 with tonight’s loss, and the Beavers dropped to 10-7-1 in league play (21 points). Niagara saw its season mark improve to 17-14-1, and pulled into second place in the College Hockey America standings at 11-6-1 (23 points). Bemidji State wraps up its 2005-06 regular season next weekend when it plays host to CHA-leading Ala.-Huntsville.

NOTES: BSU extended its Division I-era record streak of consecutive games with a goal scored to 65.

--bsu--