A POSTSEASON REMATCH
One year and one week later, they meet again. The Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team will host Niagara in a best-of-three Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinal series at Martire Family Arena this weekend, 53 weeks after the two met in the same round on the same ice a year ago. It was Niagara which emerged victorious in 2023, via a 7-3 victory -- behind three power-play goals -- in the decisive third game. Puck drop is 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday, and 5 p.m. for Sunday's if-necessary game. All three games will air live on FloSports and tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

LAST TIME OUT
SHU wrapped up the regular season with a trip to Bentley on Feb. 24. The Pios led 2-0 after one, courtesy of first-period goals from Marcus Joughin and Brendan Dumas, but Bentley rallied with one in the second and a third-period tally from Ryan Upson to force overtime. After overtime went scoreless, Bentley prevailed in the shootout, 2-0. The results left Sacred Heart as the third seed and Bentley as the sixth seed in the Atlantic Hockey Tournament.

SCOUTING THE PURPLE EAGLES
Niagara opened the second half of the Atlantic Hockey season with three straight wins, but cooled off after that and, much like SHU, has been up and down through the second half. The Purple Eagles went 5-3-2 in their last 10 regular-season games to finish as the seventh seed in Atlantic Hockey. Naigara chalked up a 4-1 win over 10th-seeded Army last Saturday in the first round, with four different players finding the back of the net. The game was tied 1-1 through one, but Noah Carlin and Tyler Wallace bookended the second intermission with goals for Niagara. The Purple Eagles boast the league's second-best power play unit, at 22.5%. Wallace (11-13-24) and Carter Randkiev (8-16-24) are tied for the team lead in scoring.

PREVIOUSLY AGAINST NIAGARA
The two teams met way back on the last weekend of October, on what was just the second weekend of Atlantic Hockey play, and split a pair of games at Martire Family Arena. Niagara scored a 4-3 (OT) victory on Friday night, courtesy of Jay Ahearn's overtime winner, but SHU bounced back with a 4-1 win on Saturday night. TJ Walsh scored in both games for the Pioneers.

ALL-TIME SERIES
The two teams have locked horns 39 times all-time, with Niagara holding a narrow, 20-17-2 advantage. SHU is just 9-12-2 in 23 games on home ice against the Purple Eagles, and is 2-3-0 against Niagara in five games thus far at Martire Family Arena. Last season's quarterfinal series marks the only previous postseason meetings between the two.

UP NEXT
The winner will advance to a best-of-three semifinal series on March 15-17, against an opponent to be determined. The four advancing teams from the quarterfinal round will be re-seeded and paired off, with the best remaining team hosting the lowest-ranked and the two middle teams meeting at the home of the second-best team. To host a semifinal series, SHU would need to dispatch Niagara and have either RIT or Holy Cross get upset in their quarterfinal.