By Tim Schmitt
LEWISTON — Wednesday proved to be hump day for the Niagara University men’s hockey team in more ways than one.
Playing for just the second Wednesday in the program’s history, the Purple Eagles finally got a victory in their 11th start, using a pair of goals and an assist from freshman Brent Vandenberg in a 4-1 victory over RPI in a non-league game at Dwyer Arena.
Niagara (1-8-2) didn’t play its best game of the year, but the Purple Eagles finally closed out an opponent after giving away a number of third-period leads this season.
“I’m just happy for the guys in there,” Niagara coach Dave Burkholder said. “They work awfully hard. To come out and play a full 60-minute effort against a really good RPI team feels really, really good.”
Vandenberg, who scored in his collegiate debut against Colgate earlier this season, had scored just once in seven starts since. But on Wednesday, he got the opener in the first period, on a goal assisted by Chris Moran and Ryan Olidis.
Later, Vandenberg added another in the second period, finishing a power-play Ted Cook style, as he sat on the back side and pounced on a rebound after Giancarlo Iuorio took a shot that RPI goalie Allen York got a pad on.
“We worked on that all week in practice. The pretty goals aren’t always going to win you games,” Vandenberg said. “We call it the men’s club, right in front of the net, and that’s where we want to play.”
Giancarlo later added a power-play marker of his own on a feed from Vandenberg and Burkholder said the freshmen duo got a chance to play on the unit after shining in practice.
“We have the Moran power-play, which has been terrific. And we auditioned everyone on the team in practice for a full week. We tried everyone,” Burkholder said. “From those auditions, we were like OK, Giancarlo has made some plays, Vandy’s a goal scorer and he’s a good backdoor guy. And (Sam Goodwin) has been great as an energy guy. Out of that came that combination, and they pumped in two.
“And it wasn’t pretty, just moving it around, and crashing the net. Rebound goals.”
In the third, goalie Adam Avramenko stood on his head, making huge saves during an RPI barrage in the final few minutes, including one on Justin Smith, who came streaking down the right win with just seconds left. For Avramenko, who was unceremoniously yanked in his last home appearance, finishing a 60-minute effort was a huge relief.
“It feels amazing. I haven’t had a win in over a year,” Avramenko said. “(Coach) has beaten up on me and all of us in general, but it’s been constructive criticism. You’ve just got to take it in stride. But this feels awesome.”
Senior Egor Mironov added an insurance marker in the third when he fired a shot from the slot that went through the legs of York.
Although RPI (7-5-1 overall) was without forwards Tyler Helfrich (ankle) and Dallas Stars draft choice Mike Bergin, Engineers’ coach Seth Appert said Niagara simply made more plays.
“Give credit to Niagara, I thought they played really good tonight. I don’t think their record is indicative of their team,” Appert said. “Even though we had a little bit of a patchwork lineup, that had nothing to do with the outcome. It was more how good they played and how good their power-play was.”
