BUFFALO — Chris Lochner and Ryan Murphy scored goals 18 seconds apart and goaltender Chris Noonan steered aside 30 shots as the Niagara men’s hockey team snapped its three-game skid with a 4-1 victory over rival Canisius before a sparse crowd at the Buffalo State Ice Arena on Tuesday night.

The win upped the Purple Eagles to 12-6-6 in Atlantic Hockey action and moved them closer to one of four coveted first-round byes in the upcoming AHA tourney. Niagara now has 30 points and moved into a third-place tie with idle Mercyhurst.

Round two against Canisius is in Dwyer Arena on Thursday at 7 p.m.

“Any points this time of the year are a big deal for us,” said Niagara coach Dave Burkholder, whose club made themselves at home in this rink for the second straight time while outscoring Canisius 7-1. “It wasn’t a pretty effort. I thought with the quick turnaround, college guys aren’t used to that. It looked like two tired teams. But you know what? We are going to take the two points and go.”

Canisius still has 21 points and is in ninth place.

“I though from our perspective, they had a couple of sloppy goals,” said Canisius coach Dave Smith, whose club eliminated Niagara from last season’s Atlantic Tournament. “To me, that was the critical difference in the game. I thought in 85 percent of the game, we were pretty good.”

“It is tough to win against anybody with that many sloppy goals.”

The Purple Eagles clung to a 1-0 lead early in the second period and then exploded to pull away.

First, Lochner banged in a rebound from just outside the crease on the power play to give Niagara a 2-0 lead at 5:27. Seemingly just seconds later, Murphy finished a picturesque tic tac toe play when he took  Ryan Rashid’s pass and beat Canisius goaltender Dan Morrison. 

“After that, I thought we started to win shifts,” Burkholder said. “From there, it was just clock management. I did not think we did a great job of taking care of the puck. It is something we can improve on Thursday.”

But before Niagara pulled away, it relied heavily on Noonan, who was sharp in the first period in making 12 saves with the game still in doubt.

“I had to get into it early, and I think that is the benefit of playing well,” Noonan said. “Once you get into it early, you get a rhythm going and play from there.”

Giancarlo Iuorio and Dan Weiss scored the other Niagara goals while Doug Beck scored Canisius’ only goal. Morrison recorded 32 saves.

Niagara’s Scott Arnold returned after missing four games with an upper body injury, and skating on a line with Lochner and Marc Zanette, had an assist on Lochner’s goal.

“Obviously, “Arny” is a big part of our offense,” Burkholder said. “To have him back solidifies our top line. We need him to be healthy down the stretch for us to have any chance. He is that valuable.”