Power play leads ice hockey to win against Niagara
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Niagara (9-5-2, 5-5-2) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
|
American Int'l (10-7-4, 8-5-2) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts – The American International College ice hockey team scored three times on the power play to win 4-1 against Atlantic Hockey Association foe Niagara University on Friday, December 9 at the MassMutual Center.
AIC is now 10-7-4 overall with an 8-5-2-1-0-0 AHA record.
Niagara jumped to an early 1-0 lead on a three-on-two, as Lars Rodne put back a rebound of a shot by Ryan Cox just 1:59 into the game.
However, AIC tied it up soon after. Nicholas Cardelli came into the zone on a power play rush and fired the puck around the boards to the left point for Brian Kramer. Kramer then found Alexander Malinowski in the left circle. Cardelli drove the net, and Malinowski's pass to him deflected off of a Niagara defender, then off the pad of goalkeeper Chad Veltri and right to Cardelli, who put in his seventh of the season at 6:24.
In the second, Niagara took two penalties in succession and AIC converted both man-up opportunities. First it was Cardelli, firing a seeing-eye wrister from the right point that snuck through Veltri's stick side at 14:25, with Kramer and Josh Barnes earning assists on the eighth goal of the season for Cardelli. Less than two minutes later, AIC executed a tic-tac-toe passing play with a redirect at the netfront by Dustin Manz at 16:03 for his sixth of the year; Jordan Biro took the shot from the left-side half wall after receiving the puck from Matt Rickard on a pass.
Niagara applied plenty of pressure in the third, including drawing a pair of penalties that resulted in a short five-on-three, but Jarrett Fiske stopped all 15 shots he faced in the frame, including a Ryan Cox bid with the net empty late. Fiske kicked the puck straight to Aaron Grounds, who then banked it off the penalty box boards and into the empty net for his fourth of the season at 17:30 to close out the win.
Fiske totaled 28 saves to improve to 6-3-4 on the season.
AIC will break for the rest of the semester, and return to action on December 29-30 at Cornell University.