The Purple Eagles defended home ice and walked away with 2 league victories, this past weekend at Dwyer Arena. 2 big wins that helped put them right back in contention for the top seed in the NECHL. Associate head coach, Tom Mooradian referred to it as “some of the best hockey we’ve played in a long time,” and had this to say about his team’s effort on the weekend:

“I truly feel as if these two wins are a direct reflection of the hard work we put in as a team this week. Our focus in practice was elevated, we had more guys asking questions than usual in film and our communication hasn’t been this consistent in a while. This was some of the best hockey we’ve played in a long time and we’re just happy to see our game coming back around. With that being said, we’re completely aware of how hard it is to win in our league. It’s going to be an all-out war the next few months and we have to prepare, accordingly. Any team in this league can win on any-given night, the competition is just that good.”

In a weekend that saw some of the Purps’ most highly touted offensive players doing what they do best, the supporting cast followed-suit and reassured the coaching staff that the development process is trending in the right direction. 

Defenseman Gibson Stuart was praised by Head Coach Larry Brzeczkowski as he claimed that “This was Gibby’s best weekend as a purple eagle. Tom’s trusted him with more time on the back-end and he’s embraced it with open arms.” Some notable standouts this weekend also included second year players Justin Crawford and Andrew Parrish. Crawford’s board play was very apparent in Saturday’s match up against UB while Parrish made several key defensive plays the following day versus Cornell. 

Niagara hopes to build on this weekend’s success as they square off against Oakland for 2 this coming weekend. Game times will be posted on the social media handles this week once puck-drop is confirmed. We hope to see you out supporting the guys on Friday!