Army hockey and Brian Riley’s final season are still alive.
Barron Woodring deflected a shot in front of the net for a power-play goal 2:45 into overtime to lift Army to a 4-3 victory over Niagara in the third and deciding game of the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals.
Army (16-18-2), the No. 5 seed, survived and advanced to face top-seeded Holy Cross in the Atlantic semifinals Friday. All three games with Niagara were decided by one goal. Army won the opener 4-3 in double overtime Friday.
Nik Hong opened the Black Knights’ scoring in the third game with a short-handed goal in the first period. Freshman Ben Ivey put Army up 2-1 in the final seconds of the second period. Ivey assisted on Easton Zueger’s second goal of the season to give Army a 3-2 lead 8 minutes into the third period. Niagara tied the game at 3-3 with 2:06 remaining.
Army freshman goalie JJ Cataldo made 34 saves.
