One day after a Friday loss, homestanding Niagara recovered to defeat Merrimack on Saturday, 6-3.
Niagara was down 1-0 after a goal by the Warriors’ Matthew Foy, but the Purple Eagles earned the equalizer at the 16:22 mark of the first period when Randy Harris put away a beautiful pass from Nick Kormanyos.
Niagara got the go-ahead goal from freshman Barrett Ehgoetz at 1:24 of the second period when he capitalized on an odd-man rush and stuffed home a pass from Kormanyos, giving Niagara the 2-1 lead. A shade over four minutes later, Niagara scored again, as Rob Bumbaco finished a pass from Chris Welch and Matt Ryan to give Niagara the 3-1 lead.
Merrimack got one back at 8:39, as Tim Reidy lifted a shot over Rob Bonk’s outstretched glove hand to score shorthanded, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
But Niagara responded just over seven minutes later when Chris Sebastian finished a three-on-two break and stuck a five-hole shot past Merrimack netminder Joe Exter to notch the eventual game-winner, moving the Niagara lead back to 4-2.
Merrimack made it 4-3 when Ryan Cordiero scored at 17:35 of the third period; however, that was not enough to catch the Purple Eagles, as Niagara scored twice more in the third period, from John Heffernan and Bernie Sigrist.
Niagara improves to 8-4-0, and 4-1-0 at home this season. Merrimack falls to 3-7-0 overall.
