Dec. 29, 2003

Final Stats

The Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team dropped their third straight decision after falling to Bentley by a score of 3-2 in the Consolation Game of the UConn Hockey Classic. Carmen Posteraro scored two goals in the Falcons win as they improved to 2-9-4 on the season while Sacred Heart dropped to 4-9-2.

Both teams entered today's contest after heartbreaking shootout losses yesterday as Sacred Heart fell to Air Force and Bentley fell to UConn by identical shootout scores of 2-1. Officially both games counted as ties in the teams' records.

Sacred Heart appeared to take the lead with just over seven minutes to play in the first period when Pierre-Luc O'Brien forced a shot past Falcons goaltender Simon St. Pierre, but the goal was disallowed because the puck was pushed into the net.

Bentley had a great chance to score with four minutes remaining in the opening period when Ryan Mayhew was left alone in front of the Pioneers net and got two shots off, one hit the post and one was blocked and deflected over the net.

The Pioneers took a 1-0 lead at 3:23 of the second period when Mike Reagan ripped a shot from the top of the far face-off circle that rang off the bottom of the crossbar as it went past St. Pierre. O'Brien and Kalen Wright assisted on the goal.

The Falcons tied the game on the power play at 12:58 when Joe Lovell one-timed a pass from Mayhew that went right through the goal crease. Paul Markarian also assisted on the goal.

Bentley took the lead at 16:06 of the second period as they broke out on a two on one rush. Carmen Posteraro took a pass from Jeremy Chase and made a great move to freeze Pioneers goaltender Jason Smith as he deposited the puck in the open net.

The Falcons held that lead until 9:36 when Kalen Wright fed a pass to Barclay Folk who carried the puck into the offensive zone and beat St. Pierre between his legs. Wright and Konn Hawkes assisted on the goal.

Bentley regained the lead for good when Posteraro scored the game-winning goal as he buried a pass from behind the goal. Lovell and Bobby Delong were given assists on Posteraro's second goal of the game.

St. Pierre made 36 saves in recording the win while Smith made 23 saves in taking the loss.

Sacred Heart will return home on January 2, 2004 when they take on St. Clair in an exhibition game at 7:00 PM at the Milford Ice Pavilion.