BUFFALO, NY - The Niagara University Purple Eagles have won their second NECHL Memorial Cup in 4 years defeating Oswego State 4-3 yesterday, Sunday March 1st, at the NECHL Championship Weekend in Buffalo, NY.

Niagara (20-9-2 Overall, 12-2-0 NECHL) came into the weekend as the playoff’s #1 seed and received a bye past Friday night’s first round action. On Saturday, Niagara defeated the University at Buffalo 6-0 in the NECHL semi-finals. This set up the NECHL Memorial Cup Final matchup between the third seeded Oswego State Lakers and the top seeded Niagara Purple Eagles.

NU opened the scoring in the second period when Ryan Peters tipped home a David Hazlet shot with 16:30 left in the middle frame. The Purple Eagles extended their lead 10 minutes later on a Gibson Stuart one-timer that beat Oswego’s Alex Gallose.

Ryan Peters scored his second of the day and added to the Niagara lead just over a minute into the third period. However, Oswego refused to go quietly. The Lakers stormed back scoring 3 times in the third period to tie the game. Martin Simanek, Trevor Jubran, and CJ Walsh all scored for the Lakers.

Niagara regained their lead with just 16 seconds left in the game when David Christopher, the 2019-2020 NECHL Player of the Year, stuffed home a rebound in front on the powerplay to put Niagara up 4-3 and secure the 2020 Memorial Cup.

With the win the Purple Eagles will also receive an auto-bid to the 2020 ACHA National Tournament in Frisco, TX. 19 other teams will join NU (6 auto-bids, 14 at large bids) to compete for the ACHA National Championship March 19th-29th. Niagara’s first round opponent is yet to be determined.

Following Sunday’s exciting championship game Niagara University’s Ryan Peters was named the tournament MVP.