DURHAM, N.H. – Austin Magera (Suwanee, Ga.) pushed his point-scoring streak to four games (2-3-5) with a second-period goal, but it was the only one the Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team could find on the road on Sunday. The Pios could not climb out of an early 2-0 hole at the Whittemore Center and suffered a 4-1 loss in non-conference play at New Hampshire.
With the loss, SHU has its five-game winning streak snapped and falls to 11-8-1, while UNH improves to 6-16-1.
An embattled, but resurgent, UNH team came out buzzing to start the game, looking to build on Friday night's win over nationally-ranked Providence. The Wildcats amassed a shots margin of 10-4 at one point in the first period, en route to a 2-0 lead. An early neutral-zone turnover yielded a breakaway for Ryan Black, who deked to the right post and slid home his fourth of the season to get the home team on the board at 4:27.
The Wildcats doubled the lead to 2-0 by cleaning up a rebound at 14:32. Nikolai Jenson took the original shot from the right point, which was turned aside. From the right post, Black batted the rebound over to the left side for Chase Stevenson, and the senior captain one-timed his seventh of the year into the yawning net.
SHU started to generate more pressure in the latter stages of the period and closed the shots deficit to 11-7 before the frame was up, but could not get on the board before the horn.
The Pios would continue to pressure, and got the only goal of the second period, to trim the deficit to 2-1 through 40 minutes. Neil Shea (Marshfield, Mass.) jumpstarted a rush down the right wing, which saw Todd Goehring (Wayside, N.J.) put the initial shot on net. His attempt was turned aside, but the trailer, Magera, cleaned things up for his third of the season, at 8:31.
SHU was unable to cash in a late power-play chance which carried into the final period, and worse yet, surrendered a shorthanded goal just seven seconds after the intermission. Right off the opening faceoff, Cy LeClerc wound up in all alone, and put away his team-leading 10th of the season to make it a 3-1 game.
Liam Devlin tacked on an empty-netter – his eighth goal of the year – for UNH at 18:02, to create the 4-1 final.
Luke Lush (Sherwood Park, Alberta) finished with 24 saves against 27 shots and suffered the loss (9-7-1) in the Sacred Heart crease. David Fessenden (4-10-0) stopped 23 of 24 shots to pick up the win for the Wildcats.
SHU has another Hockey East opponent on the docket next time out, when they host Boston College on Saturday, Jan. 14. After 29.5 years, the Pios finally play their first game in a rink of their own. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Martire Family Arena in Fairfield, Conn.
