By Warren Kozireski
After a solid 15-conference season and a fourth-place finish, Niagara earned the first-round playoff before being upset in the quarterfinals by an Army team at least partially motivated by their retiring longtime head coach.
After losing four of their top five scorers from last season to graduation or the portal, accounting for 54 of their second-best in the conference (90 goals scored), the Purple Eagles will need to find offense in several spots and quickly build locker room chemistry with 14 returners and 11 new faces.
“I believe our staff has done a great job finding ways to bring talent to our campus…(but) I don’t know the answer to that yet,” head coach Jason Lammers said during the conference’s Media Day. “I think something we’ve always built our teams on is we do it by committee… and this year it’s going to be built that way again.”
Senior forward Glebs Prohorenkovs is the top scorer with 31 points.
“Guys we’re excited about; I’ll start up front and one is (sophomore) Spencer Young, he’s a top player for us and someone who’s had a great first year (seven goals, five assists). (Senior) Noah Hackett is a guy who’s really matured through the program and, even though he had to wait his turn, he set some goals for us last year (11) and has some big, hairy, bold goals for himself this year and (senior) Glebs Prohorenkovs played at the World Cup last year (for Latvia) and has therefore gained a wealth of experience and is someone we really count on.”
It’s on defense where the Purple Eagles have the most experience with seniors Ethan Lund, Jonathan Ziskie and Mitchell Becker with graduate student Lane Brockhoff and junior Ross Roloson.
“On the back end, we have (junior) Ross Roloson back, who was a key guy on our power play and special teams in general last year, and (senior) Ethan Lund, who we want to take on more of a leadership role this year.”
Goaltending features the inexperienced trio of junior Mitchell Day and sophomore Deivs Rolov who played together in three games last season with freshman Thomas Anderson via the Bismarck Bobcats in the NAHL, where he set the team record for wins while leading them to their first regular season title.
Niagara begins the campaign with six non-conference games, starting with St. Lawrence on home ice on Oct. 4, before beginning conference play with a home-and-home against Robert Morris Halloween weekend.
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