Davenport kicked off 2023 with a road trip to Niagara, New York for a pair of non-conference games against the Purple Eagles. Niagara came into the weekend ranked No. 15 in ACHA Division I.

The Purple Eagles had a pair of lopsided wins over the Panthers on their own ice. They won 8-3 on Friday, Jan. 6 and blanked DU 6-0 on Saturday, Jan. 7.

Inside the numbers on Friday showed that Niagara outshot the Panthers 51-27 including a 22-4 advantage in the final period. The first period was back-and-forth with the Purple Eagles leading 3-2 into the first intermission. DU had a 2-1 lead after Niagara took an early lead. Robert McLaughlin scored his fourth goal of the season at 7:31 from Jacob Demeter and Tyler Majewski. Kristers Klavins scored just over two minutes later for his seventh tally of the season from Brendan Bauer and Noah Bradburn. NU closed out the period with goals at 13:32 and 17:19 at even strength.

The lead grew to 5-2 in the first six minutes of the second period as Niagara scored two power play goals from David Christopher and Anthony Thurston. Keelan Saworski got his sixth goal of the season for DU at 17:29 from Aidan Talsma and Sebastien Doucet. The Purple Eagles scored all three goals in the final period including a power play goal by Tristan Taillefer at 10:14.

It was all Niagara in the rematch on Saturday with a 54-21 advantage in shots on goal. Christopher scored twice for Niagara upping his season total to 10. Francesco Reda, Scott Persson, AJ Campbell, and Quinn Schneidmiller also scored for NU. Nathan Gauthier stopped 48 shots in net for Davenport.