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On Friday, February 22nd at 5pm, #6 Binghamton BearCats will take on #3 Syracuse Orangemen. Syracuse owns the regular season matchups with the BearCats however their second game resulted in a shoot-out. The 8pm game heads #5 Ithaca College against the #4 Lakers from Oswego. The Lakers took both regular season games however the Bombers are on a tear the past 2 weeks, winning 4 of its last 5 games. #1 Niagara and #2 Buffalo will await to see who they square off with. The Purps have the 5pm game on Saturday, February 23rd while the Bulls will skate at 8pm.
Niagara is the clear favorite. The Purps are 22-8-0 and undefeated in league play heading into the NECHL tournament. That is good enough to secure a bid to the Nationals, if UB is to make the trip they are probably do something nobody else has done in the league, beat Niagara!
UB is 26-4-4 but have lost twice to Niagara, both times back in November. The first game saw the Purps erase a three point third period deficit and beat the Bulls in overtime. The second game saw UB try to do the same thing but came up on the short end of a 5-3 decision.
Those are two of Niagara's closes league games this season as the Purps have pretty much pounded on everyone else in the NECHL while UB was also dominant they did lose one a game to Syracuse in the early part of the season.
Long story short there is going to be a lot of local college hockey at the North Towns this weekend, if you're looking for something to do drop by!