Moon Township, Pa. ? The Robert Morris University men's ice hockey team suffered a, 7-1, setback at Niagara Saturday evening at Dwyer Arena. With the loss the Colonials, 14-14-3 overall and 9-7-2 in CHA action, will enter the College Hockey America tournament as the third seed and will face the second seeded Purple Eagles who improved to 19-9-4 overall and to 11-5-2 in CHA play on March 15 at 7:00 p.m.

Vince Rocco opened the scoring for Niagara 1:38 into the first period and the Purple Eagles never looked back. Egor Mironov made the score, 2-0, at the 9:37 mark and Ryan Annesley capped off the first period scoring at the 16:40 mark.

Rocco tallied his second goal of the game at the 6:19 mark giving Niagara a, 4-0, lead before the Colonials got on the board at the 14:38 mark when Kyle Burton (Calgary, Alberta / Calgary Canucks) scored his sixth goal of the season on the power-play. Jason Towsley (La Salle, Ontario / Leamington Flyers) and Jake Sparks (Evergreen, Colo. / Central Texas Blackhawks) tallied assists on the play. Dan Sullivan gave the Purple Eagles a, 5-1, lead when he scored with just 59 seconds left in the second period.

Niagara tallied two more goals in the third period when Bryan Maczyk scored just 26 seconds into the third session and Ted Cook scored at the 9:55 mark making the score, 7-1.

Christian Boucher (Orleans, Ontario / Cumberland Grads) allowed five goals on 26 shots through the first two periods before being pulled for Jim Patterson (Kamloops, B.C. / Canmore Eagles). Patterson made nine saves on 11 shots.

The Purple Eagles outshot the Colonials, 37-33. RMU converted on 1-of-6 power-play chances and held Niagara to 0-for-2 on the power-play.

The Colonials close out the regular-season next weekend as they host Ala.-Huntsville on March 7-8 at the RMU Island Sports Center.