WATERTOWN, Mass.—The Sacred Heart men's ice hockey team held off a late comeback from Bentley for the 5-4 win on Saturday night at the John A. Ryan Skating Arena. The Pioneers (9-14-3, 7-12-1 AHA) split the Atlantic Hockey weekend set against the Falcons (7-12-5, 6-7-4 AHA).

Leading the Pioneers was the starting line of sophomore Stephen Hladin and seniors Justin Danforth and Jordan Minello. Danforth picked up his fourth career playmaker with his three assists. He also recorded one goal to tie a career-high four points. Minello netted his fourth two-goal game of the season, tying his single-season high of 14 goals. Hladin picked up his first career multi-point game with a goal and assist. He has scored in back-to-back games for the Pioneers. Sophomore Liam Clare grabbed his fourth multi-assist game of the season. Freshman Zach Tsekos recorded his first career multi-assist game.

Sacred Heart started the scoring midway through the first period as freshman Vito Bavaro fired one past Bentley goaltender Jayson Argue on the set pass from Tsekos. Just 1:12 later, Minello fired in the power play goal on the set up from Danforth and Evan Jasper. Minello extended the Pioneers lead to 3-0 at 4:40 in the second on the two-on-one rush with Danforth finding him once again.

The Bentley offense finally got going at 8:26 in the second as Kyle Schmidt picked up the power play strike on the pass from Jonathan Desbiens. The Falcons cut the deficit to one as they took advantage of a five-on-three power play at 14:12 with Max French firing in the feed from Schmidt. Danforth pushed the Pioneers lead to 4-2 on one-timer from the assist by Clare at 16:27 in the second. 

The Pioneers extended the lead to 5-2 at 7:05 in the third as Hladin fired one in from the right circle on the assists from Danforth and Minello. Bentley started its comeback effort as Jake Ahlgren took advantage of the SHU turnover to find Desbiens wide open at 12:32. The Falcons added an extra attacker goal at 19:53 in the third as French found Schmidt open at the right circle to bring the score to 5-4, but it wasn't enough as the Pioneers cleared the final faceoff from their zone to pick up the road victory. 

Bentley outshot the Pioneers 35-26. The Pioneers found great success on the power play, going 2-for-3 on the night. The SHU penalty kill did a fantastic job holding the Falcons power play unit to just 2-for-7. Brett Magnus recorded 31 saves in goal for the Pioneers, while Argue made 21 stops for Bentley.

The Pioneers will have next weekend off before heading out to Mercyhurst for a weekend series beginning Feb. 3 at 7:05 pm.