LEWISTON — Niagara hockey opens the second-half of its season with a pair of games against Bentley this weekend and a visit from the Stanley Cup on Saturday.
The Purple Eagles (8-8-3, 7-4-2 AHA) are in third place in Atlantic Hockey following a strong start to the season. Bentley (11-5-2, 9-2-1 AHA) is second, behind only Sacred Heart. Friday night is a 7 p.m. puck drop at Dwyer Arena, while Saturday’s game will start at 5 p.m.
The Stanley Cup will be available for viewing and photos in Talons, a sports bar and restaurant located in Dwyer Arena, from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. Saturday. A ticket to Saturday’s game is required to view the Stanley Cup.
Coach Jason Lammers has been pleased with his team’s play through the first half of the season. A big part of that has been the leadership shown by captain Jay Ahearn, forward and alternate captain Shane Ott and the team’s senior class.
“They’ve done an incredible job changing the culture here,” he said, noting that the coaching staff can focus solely on coaching hockey without needing to chase players down to attend class or the other kind of things that can happen on a college campus. “I really do believe we are an uncommon culture, which has been really fun for us as a staff.”
Lammers also pointed to goalie Pierce Charleson’s play as the reason for the strong start. Charleson is 8-6-3 with a 2.81 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.
“He’s been fantastic for us and a big part of the reason why we’re in third place and why we’re battling for what we wanna battle for,” Lammers said. “He’s been really good.”
Niagara’s defense has also been good at getting pucks up to the forwards and creating offense. The Purple Eagles are averaging 3.1 goals per game.
“We score a lot and that’s been good,” Lammers said. “I think the part we want to improve as a team is we want to make everybody have to come through us and be harder to play against. That’s where I want to see us take a step here in the second half. We want to continue to score the way we are, but be harder to play against.”
Ahearn said the team is looking forward to being home for more games in the season’s second-half. The Purple Eagles were on the road for 13 games in the first half of the season. They’ll have 10 games at home, five on the road in the second half.
“The biggest difference is that you’re in your own bed,” he said. “You don’t have bus legs the day before, and you don’t have the energy of Dwyer Arena. We think our building is the toughest to play in so we want them to come to us and we’re gonna try to make it a steel cage match.”
Being on the road early wasn’t a bad thing, Lammers said,
“We were able to bring everybody on the road, so we got an incredible connection on the road,” he said. “We got to spend a lot of time together. I think there’s a lot of organic connections that happen in hotel rooms and in lobbies and on the bus and playing cards and having a laugh and so on. So I think that was really beneficial to our group to be connected like that.”
Ahearn, who’s second in scoring on the team with 10 goals and 17 points on the season, has been impressed with the team’s offensive prowess. Ott leads the team with five goals and 19 points.
“Our offensive power has really shown this year,” he said.
Playing with the Stanley Cup in the building will be a cool experience, Ahearn said.
“I don’t know how many other schools it goes to, but I guarantee it’s not a lot,” he said. “It’s definitely a really special event that we’re looking forward to.”
In fact, Ahearn is the reason the cup is coming to Dwyer. In November, Ahearn spoke at the university’s President’s Dinner. Niagara alum John Katko, a former politician and prosecutor who works with the National Hockey League was in attendance. He was so impressed with Ahearn’s speech, he offered to have the cup come to Dwyer, Lammers said.
“I think there’s people in the area that would enjoy seeing it,” he said. “They’ll be able to get real close to it here when it’s in the building and I just think it’s a real opportunity for the local community to connect.”