| Subject: Seniors lead NU's championship hunt |
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Niagara Gazette
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Date Posted: Friday, January 31, 11:45:43am
Author Host/IP: syn-074-070-140-050.res.spectrum.com/74.70.140.50
It’s been a while since Dwyer Arena hosted a meaningful Niagara game in February.
But that’s why Jason Lammers wanted to coach Niagara in 2017 and why seniors like Jay Ahearn and Shane Ott stuck through some of the program’s rough patches. They could feel something brewing on Monteagle Ridge.
Lammers inherited a program that went three years without winning double-digit games, including just five in 2017. In the three years before Lammers, Niagara went 13-60-11 in the American Hockey Association and then jumped to 33-39-12 — including a trip to the AHA final in 2019 — in his first three years.
Niagara took a step back post-pandemic, going 3-9-3 in 2021, but his players didn’t jump ship. The Purple Eagles finished above .500 in 2023 for the first time since 2013, setting up this season.
At 12-5-2 in conference play (14-10-3 overall), Niagara has a massive two-game series against Sacred Heart on Friday and Saturday with a chance to vault into first place. Although the two teams have 12 AHA wins, Sacred Heart has three more points due to regulation wins, but the Purple Eagles can erase the gap and put themselves in position for home-ice advantage in the conference tournament in the remaining five regular-season games.
“It’s probably taken a little longer than we thought it would take, but there’s been an evolution and natural steps,” Lammers said. “This is where we believe the program can be and should be and where we all want it to be. But it comes back to the players and the people surrounding the organization. … They type of people we’ve recruited, Jay and (Ott), specifically, and the rest of our team collectively have fantastic at moving this.”
Five players — Ahearn, Ott, Lane Brockhoff, Noah Carlin and Lars Rodne — remain from the seven-man recruiting class from 2021. They could have decided not to come when Niagara backslid the year before or could have left when the Purple Eagles went just 11-22-3 and were swept by Bentley in the first round of the AHA tournament.
Instead, the group remained intact and Niagara went 19-18-3 and went to the AHA semifinals, losing a 2-1 series to Canisius. They returned last year and went 18-18-3, returning to the semifinals as the No. 7 seed before falling to top-seeded RIT.
“We always said we’re going to be the class to win this thing and we want to be the class to win this thing,” Ahearn said. “Just manifesting it and speaking it into existence. Since our freshman year, we knew we had a special group. … We’ve felt this building for four years.”
Niagara took a big jump by building one of the top scoring offenses in the AHA. In 2022, the Purple Eagles ranked ninth out of 10 teams in scoring, jumping to third in 2023 and now they lead the conference with 92 goals.
Ahearn is tied for the AHA lead with 15 goals, while Ott and freshman Trevor Hoskin lead the conference with 20 assists apiece. But Niagara feels its offense starts in the defensive zone, where they block 13.3 shots per game.
The Purple Eagles also have a .544 faceoff win percentage, over 100 wins more than anyone in the conference. Andy Reist leads the AHA with .606 faceoff percentage, while Tyler Wallace is second with 333 wins.
And once Niagara enters the offensive zone, it is efficient. The Purple Eagles lead the conference with 32.3 shots on goal per game, but also lead with a .11 shooting percentage.
“We try to get to the middle of the ice as much as possible because that gives us the most options to succeed and have good scoring chances,” Ott said. “... The depth we have on this team, anyone in our lineup can make a high-danger play to get a puck to the net and anyone on our team can put the pick in the back of the net at any time.”
Although Niagara isn’t shying away from the importance of its series with Sacred Heart, it’s also making it known the season doesn’t end regardless of the outcome. There are five games after this weekend, including three against rival Canisius before the conference tournament.
But this is also the time of year the Purple Eagles have thrived. Despite their overall record, Lammers’ teams have won 16 postseason games.
Even after finishing last in the regular-season standings in 2017, Niagara won its first-round series over Sacred Heart. Despite winning three conference games in 2021, the Purple Eagles won three postseason games to reach the AHA semifinals.
And in five of the seven AHA tournaments under Lammers — the 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19 — Niagara has lost to a finalist, including four losses to the eventual tournament champion.
“It’s the way we’re built and it’s the way we build it,” Lammers said. “Experience is a great teacher. And so now we’ve been in these battles, in these trenches. The tough thing about playoffs in our conference — in college hockey in general — is how short it is. The Stanley Cup is a seven-game series. These are weekends and you have to be able to respond fast.”
Niagara hosts Sacred Heart at 7 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday.
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