MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (November 25, 2023) – After eight hours on the bus on Thursday, then a hard-fought win on Friday night, it was a quick turnaround for the legs for a Saturday matinee at RMU Island Sports Center. It showed at the start for the Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team, which came out sluggish and had just five shots through 35 minutes of play. A power-play goal late in the second got things level through two though, and a timely goal from Jake Bongo (Ridgefield, Conn.) in the final frame powered the Pios to a 3-1 win and an Atlantic Hockey weekend sweep of Robert Morris.
 
SHU (7-5-0, 7-2-0 AHA) – which has now won six in a row in Atlantic Hockey play -- started slow on Saturday afternoon and was outshot, 8-2, in the opening stanza. The Pios held RMU (2-9-3, 1-7-2 AHA) to just a 1-0 lead through the first 20 minutes. With the defense caught in a change, the Colonials were able to spring George Krotiris in alone. He scored on the breakaway at 7:17 for his second goal of the season.
 
Sacred Heart added just three more shots through the first 15 minutes of the middle frame, but got a late power play, courtesy of a tripping minor to McKay Hayes, and turned things up from there. On the man-advantage, Braeden Tuck (Calgary, Alberta) and John Jaworski (Grinnell, Iowa) combined to find Marcus Joughin (Tecumseh, Ontario) free of any encumbrances in the left circle. The sophomore quickly pumped home his team-best fourth power-play goal of the campaign before Chad Veltri could slide across the crease.
 
"Overall, a good weekend, but a really slow start for our group today," said Associate Head Coach Steve Bergin after the game. "I thought the legs were a little heavy, but as the game went on, we got that power-play goal and then from there we started playing as a team."
 
The Joughin goal sent the game into the third period tied, and the Pios put the pedal down, to the tune of a 12-8 shots advantage. The RMU levy broke at 7:13, after Liam Izyk (Blackie, Alberta) held the rebound of a TJ Walsh (Shrewsbury, Mass.) shot in at the left point. Izyk quickly shuffled it over to Bongo in the slot, and the latter whipped home his second of the year from there.
 
"We played the right way [after the Joughin goal], we started skating and sacrificing for each other," continued Bergin. "We always say 'good teams find a way to win', and I thought we did a really good job of that this weekend."
 
Robert Morris would generate six more shots the rest of the way, but also never seriously threatened to tie the game on the way to its fifth straight loss. Veltri went to the bench for the extra attacker for the final 90 seconds, but Kevin Lombardi (Schwenksville, Pa.) iced things for SHU with a 150-foot empty-net goal at 19:24.
 
Chase Clark (Williamsville, N.Y.) finished with 21 saves against 22 shots to pick up the win (7-5-0) in front of the Sacred Heart net. Veltri (2-8-3) stopped 17 of 19 in the loss for RMU.
 
The Pios are on the road again next weekend, with a pair of Atlantic Hockey contests against American International on Dec. 1-2. Friday night's game is the annual Jason Pagni Memorial Game and will be contested at Avon Old Farms in Avon, Conn. Saturday night's game is at AIC's usual home barn, the MassMutual Center, in downtown Springfield, Mass.