Box Score Milford, CT- In a season worth of struggles, Friday night proved to be a bright spot for the Sacred Heart Men's Hockey team. Especially for four Pioneers - Anthony Yelovich (Little Falls, NJ), Ryan Miancini (Monroe, CT), Matt Gingera (Winnipeg, MB), and Chris Bailer (Red Deer, AB), all of whom played and won their last game at the Milford Ice Pavilion together.
All four seniors played huge roles in the victory over the Army Black Knights, a solid 5-3 win. Miniaci found SHU captain Eric Delong (Oakville, MB) with a perfect far-post pass for a one-timer and the game-tying goal at 4:07. Gingera scored the second Pioneer goal on assists from Drew Goerge (Regina, SK) and Chad Filteau (Regina, SK), giving the Pioneers a 2-1 lead with 1:59 remaining in the first period on the 100th point of his career
Although the end result was what the Pioneers were looking for, the game certainly did not start the way they wanted it to. Just 1:07 into the game, Army scored its first goal of the night when Zak Zaramba scored with a transition far-side wrist shot on assists from Danny Colvin and Andy Starczewski.
The Pioneers started the second period right where they left off in the first, scoring 5:06 in when Jared Eng (North Vancouver, BC) scored his first career goal on a power play, a slap shot from the slot set up by Gingera and DeLong. The Pioneers scored their fourth unanswered goal just 4:33 later when George found the back of the net on assists from DeLong and Ben Ketchum (Greenwich, CT). SHU extended its lead to 5-1 when Ketchum poked home a draw smartly won forward by Yelovich.
Army added goasl later in the second period by Kyle Maggard and in the third Kyle Dube to make the score 5-3, which would ultimately be the final.
Andrew Bodnarchuk (Saskatoon, SK) was steady in goal, making 24 saves on 27 shots and earning his first career collegiate victory.
The Pioneers will close out the regular season when they travel to West Point, NY to once again take on the Black Knights of Army tomorrow for a 7:05pm faceoff.
