Army and Niagara Ready for a Rematch

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point hockey team welcomes Niagara to Tate Rink with a big four points on the line this weekend in a rematch from an early November series. The games are set for Friday and Saturday night both beginning at 7 p.m.

The Black Knights and Purple Eagles split the two games with Army taking a 3-1 victory on Nov. 10, fueled by three-unanswered goals by Trevor Fidler, Zach Evancho and Michael Wilson. The following night, Niagara came away with a 3-2 win. This weekend, fans are welcome to join the team for a Skate with the Black Knights event with the team after Saturday's game. Anyone can participate, fans are just asked to bring their skates and helmets to the game.

ARMY (10-11-5, 7-8-5 Atlantic Hockey)

The Black Knights have fallen back in the Atlantic Hockey standings, but are a few games behind other AHA opponents.
Army has captured 19 points so far this season with seven league wins and five ties.
Wilson leads the squad with 22 points on 14 goals and eight assists. He is the only player in double-digits for goals.
He is also first on the roster in power play goals (7) and is tops in game-winning goals with three alongside Alex Wilkinson.
Dalton MacAfee leads the team with 15 assists this year and is followed by Dominic Franco (14), Tyler Pham (11) and Wilkinson (10).

HOW TO FOLLOW
VIDEO • AtlanticHockey.TV
LISTEN • GoArmyWestPoint.com/watch
TWITTER • @ArmyWP_Hockey
GAME NOTES • GoArmyWestPoint.com

NIAGARA (11-15-2, 10-10-2 AHA)

The Purple Eagles sit three points ahead of Army in a tie for fourth place in the Atlantic Hockey standings entering this weekend as we near the end of the regular season.
Niagara has struggled of late, dropping six of its last seven games to conference opponents.
Derian Plouffe leads the team with 30 points and 15 goals, including five on the power play and three short-handed tallies.
Noah Delmas ranks second on the team in points with 25 and has dished out a team-high 22 assists.
In net, Brian Wilson has shouldered the majority of the burden, owning a 9-14-2 record in 25 starts to go along with a 2.72 goals-against average and .902 save percentage.

LAST TIME OUT

Army battled to a 2-2 draw against Mercyhurst on Friday night here at Tate Rink before dropping a 6-1 decision to the Lakers in the series finale.
Head coach Brian Riley's squad clawed its way back to force overtime after Wilson scored an unassisted, short-handed goal with four minutes to play on Friday.
His sons had a hand in seven of Mercyhurst's eight goals on the weekend, including a hat trick from Jack.
Evancho tallied Army's lone goal in Saturday's game.

SHARING THE CREASE

Senior Cole Bruns opened the year as Army's starting goalie, manning the blue paint for the first 15 games before missing a month due to injury.
Rookie Jared Dempsey filled in against some tough opponents, facing four ranked teams in his first five career starts.
The rookie held his own, going 2-3-1 in Bruns' absence. Now that Bruns is back, however, the duo has shared the crease over the past two series with near identical stats.
Dempsey owns a 2.44 goals-against average to Bruns' mark of 2.65, with the net-minders posting save percentages of .923 and .913, respectively.
Each have recorded one shutout this season as part of the third-best scoring defense in Atlantic Hockey.

KILL IT OFF

Army and Niagara have been the two best penalty killing units in Atlantic Hockey this season.
The Black Knights owning the third-best success rate in the nation at .885.
The Purple Eagles are the only other team from the AHA in the top 10 nationally on the PK, killing off 84.8 percent of its penalties.

For more news and information about Army hockey, please follow @ArmyWP_Hockey on Twitter and Instagram.

Army and Niagara Ready for a Rematch

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Cole Bruns

Jared Dempsey

Zach Evancho

Trevor Fidler

Dominic Franco

Dalton MacAfee

Tyler Pham

Alex Wilkinson

Michael Wilson

Army West Point Athletics

Army and Niagara Ready for a Rematch

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Next Event

Players Mentioned

Cole Bruns

Jared Dempsey

Zach Evancho

Trevor Fidler

Dominic Franco

Dalton MacAfee

Tyler Pham

Alex Wilkinson

Michael Wilson

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