By Tim Schmitt<br><a href="mailto:tschmitt@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Tim</a>
LEWISTON — Dave Burkholder isn’t one to tolerate penalties in key situations. But even the Niagara men’s hockey coach couldn’t get too angry by the time freshman defender Derek Foam returned to the bench after taking two minutes for interference during Tuesday’s grudge match with Canisius.
When Foam was sent to the box midway through the second period, the Purple Eagles held a tenuous 2-0 edge.
When he returned, Niagara had reeled off an incredible string of three short-handed goals in 69 seconds, and had expanded its lead en route to a 5-2 victory in front of a raucous standing room only crowd at Dwyer Arena.
“Special teams were the difference tonight,” Burkholder said. “The (penalty kill) the last two nights out has been a difference maker.”
That’s an understatement. The three consecutive shorties equal the team’s entire short-handed goal output of the last two years.
The first was all hustle. A Canisius defenseman crossed the Niagara blueline, but freshman Sam Goodwin lifted his stick of a then headed the other way on a 2-on-1. Rather than passing, Goodwin faked, then snapped a shot that was tipped before it beat Andrew Loewen.
Just 33 seconds later, lightning struck again as Egor Mironov blocked a pass near his own blueline, and headed in on Loewen alone. His shot went 5-hole, giving the Purple Eagles a 4-0 edge.
And Dan Sullivan finished the run, tossing a soft shot from the point just 36 seconds after Mironov’s goal. The puck eluded Loewen, and the junior goalie was pulled in favor of Taylor Anderson.
“That was insane,” NU goalie Juliano Pagliero said of the offensive explosion. “Really bizarre.”
After getting thoroughly outplayed in the first period — and being outshot 13-5 — Niagara had the good fortune of watching a pair of Canisius goals get disallowed.
The first came in the opening minute of the second period. After a scramble in front of the net, Canisius’ Dave Kostuch scooped up a loose puck and backhanded it into the Niagara net. Just before the puck was released, however, a pair of players caromed into the net, knocking it off its magnets.
Referees instantly waved the goal off.
Later, another scramble to the left of Pagliero pushed the puck alone in the middle of the crease. Canisius sophomore Vinny Scarsella knocked it into the net, but the referee had lost sight of the puck and blew that play dead too.
“I’m not sure how you correct that,” Canisius coach Dave Smith said of the officials. “Everybody here saw the puck. They didn’t.
“Puck luck was not with us tonight.”
But it was with Niagara, which improved to 4-5-1 on the season. Wes Consorti got the Purple Eagles on the board with a low shot that beat Loewen on the stick side in the first period and Ryan Olidis added another on a good pass from Mironov.
Wes Love and Peter MacDougall scored in the third for Canisius (3-3-2), but the game was never really in question.
