The weekend set between Holy Cross and Niagara wasn’t exactly the most anticipated matchup on anyone’s list, but by the end of the weekend, it made headlines. Holy Cross won the first game 8-2, and the two teams tied in the second, 4-4. However, the final scores of the games wasn’t the reason for the news. It was the offensive output of Holy Cross junior forward TJ Moore, who recorded a hat trick in each of the two games. Moore now leads the country in scoring early on, with 6 goals and 8 total points.
For Moore, this has been a long time coming. As a freshman, he scored 11 goals and had 23 total points. He followed that up with 15 goals and 28 points as a sophomore. He had expected to become a much larger part of his team’s offense with the departure of 9 players from last year’s team. Holy Cross has a solid team this year, and will look to make a run at the Atlantic Hockey title. The Crusaders are currently leading the conference with 3 points, as their matchups with Niagara were both conference games. Moore was named the first star of the week by NCAA Hockey, and will look to continue his hot start to the season this weekend, when Holy Cross plays host to #11 Providence.
