SPRINGFIELD, MA.- The Sacred Heart University Men's Ice Hockey team  (15-14-4 overall, 14-10-3 AHA) added two more points in the Atlantic Hockey standings as the Pioneers defeated AIC (17-9-1 overall, 17-15-1 AHA) by a final score of 5-2. Freshman Austin Magera led the way tallying two goals on the day for a pair of points. The Pioneers will look for the weekend sweep on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. SHU concludes the month of February with its best month yet going 7-1-1 for the month. With the win, the Pioneers have secured a first round bye in the Atlantic Hockey Association playoffs which will begin on Fri. March, 15. 

First Period

• The Pioneers would outshoot the Yellow Jackets in the first period 13-11 while SHU also led the way in shots on goal with nine while holding AIC to just six.
• SHU would be the first team to jump on the board as first-year Austin Magera would net his 12^th goal of the season off a pair of assists by sophomores Marc Johnstone and Jordan Kaplan to put the Pioneers ahead 1-0 at 10:15.
• Then just one minute later redshirt junior Jason Cotton would net his eighth goal of the season at 11:16 to take a 2-0 lead.
• AIC would tighten the SHU lead at 18:47 in the first to close the period with SHU ahead 2-1.

Second Period

• The Pioneers would continue its strong play in the second period as SHU would be able to tally two more goals to take a 4-2 lead heading into the third period.
• SHU would outshoot the Yellow Jackets again in the second period as SHU would take 16 shots while holding AIC to just 14.
• At 6:06 junior Ruslan Rakhmatov would fire off his second goal of the season off a pair of assists by Jason Cotton and senior Stephen Hladin to give the Pioneers a 3-1 lead.
• After a AIC goal narrowed the lead back to one at 9:48 in the period, Magera would continue his impressive year as he fired off a power-play goal at 16:46 in the period to give the Pioneers a 4-2 lead heading into the third and final period.

Third Period

• The Pioneers would be able to tally one more goal in the third period to give SHU the 5-2 win over the Yellow Jackets.
• The goal would come off the stick of first-year Nick Boyagian at 5:55 in the period as assists would be credited to junior Vito Bavaro and senior Mike Lee.
• The Pioneers at the end of the day, would outshoot the Yellow Jackets 42-41 while edging in shots on goal 26-23.
• On the power-play front SHU would go 1-3 while AIC went 1-6.