CANISIUS 4, NIAGARA 3

Courtesy of Canisius Athletic Communications

Behind a Buffalo State Sports Arena record crowd of 1,711, the Canisius College hockey team defeated cross-town rival Niagara, 4-3. Sophomore Josh Heidinger (pictured) led the Griffs to victory with a career-best two goals.

With the win Canisius improves to 4-10-4, while Niagara drops to 10-5-1. The Canisius victory also gave the Griffs a commanding 11-3 advantage in the Battle of the Bridge series, which is an all-sports competition between the two local rivals.

"This was a big game tonight," said Canisius College head coach Dave Smith. "This series is a big rivalry and it is great to pull it off. They got on the board quickly but our goal took the momentum from them and we kept it up from there."

Heidinger also added an assist to match his personal best with three points. The sophomore has posted multiple-point totals in five games this season.

Sophomore Carl Hudson and senior Kyle Bushee each tallied a goal for the Griffs. Freshman Cory Conacher posted two assists in his first collegiate game, while sophomore Chris Forsman, senior David Kasch and sophomore Jason Weeks each added a helper.

Sophomore Andrew Loewen recorded 37 saves in earning the victory.

The Purple Eagles got on the scoreboard quickly, striking just 1:09 into the contest. Vince Rocco fired in a shot for his first of three goals of the evening. However, Niagara's only lead of the night would last just 17 seconds as Heidinger found the back of the net for his first goal of the night. After a Conacher shot was saved, Heidinger cleaned up the rebound for the game-tying score.

Niether team would tally another goal until Hedinger scored his second goal of the night 4:27 into the second. The sophomore would get behind the Niagara defense and beat the Purple Eagles' goalie with a nice move on a breakaway. Conacher and Forsman each registered an assist on the score.

The Purple Eagles would knot the game when Rocco tallied his second goal at the 11:48 mark but the Griffs would answer back and claim the lead for good less than three minutes later. Heidinger found an open Hudson just 14 seconds into a power play and Hudson hammered it in for his fifth score of the season. Kasch also posted an assist on the goal.

Bushee added his second score of the season with 2:15 remaining in the period. After a Niagara turnover, Weeks found Bushee by the blue line and the senior fired the puck in to give the Griffs a two-goal advantage at the end of two. The Griffs' four goals forced the Purple Eagles to change goalies at the intermission, ending the evening for Juliano Pagliero. Pagliero, who made 19 saves, entered the game with the second-best save percentage in the country (.942).

Niagara would pull to within one when Rocco completed the hat trick at the 9:33 mark of the third, but Loewen and the Griffs shut out the Purple Eagles the rest of the evening for the rivalry victory.

The Canisius defense held the Purple Eagles without a power-play score in four opportunities while the Griffs struck with one extra-man score in four chances. Niagara outshot Canisius, 40-30.

The Griffs return to action next weekend, hosting Bentley for a pair of Atlantic Hockey games. Canisius welcomes the Falcons to the Amherst Pepsi Center on Friday and Saturday. Both games begin at 7:05 p.m.