WALTHAM, Mass. (January 12, 2024) – Daniel Ebrahim (Brooklin, Ontario) potted a pair in the second period – his first career multiple-goal game – to help the Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team seize control of Friday night's Atlantic Hockey contest at Bentley. TJ Walsh (Shrewsbury, Mass.) provided an important insurance marker in the third, and the Pioneers held on late for a 4-3 victory at Bentley Arena.
 
"That was a really hard-fought win tonight, I'm proud of our guys" said senior associate head coach Scott McDougall after the game. "There were a lot of momentum swings in this hockey game. The guys had to compete and battle through a lot of elements out here."
 
First-place SHU (10-9-2, 10-4-1 AHA) -- which secured the 400th win all-time in program history -- wasted no time getting things started in its first road game in over a month, opening the scoring just 84 seconds into the proceedings. Kevin Lombardi (Schwenksville, Pa.) and Braeden Tuck (Calgary, Alberta) put in some work on the left-wing side to get the puck to Andrius Kulbis-Marino (Methuen, Mass.) in the circle. The senior defenseman made an outside-in move on his defender and popped a shot to the top-right corner through a screen for his second goal of the season.
 
Bentley (10-13-0, 6-9-0 AHA) answered at the 7:55 mark. Peter Kramer took the puck behind the net heading from right to left, but slipped a nifty pass back against the grain, to AJ Hodges crashing the right post. Justin Robbins (Alpine, N.J.) had already slid across to the far post, which left Hodges with an easy finish on his sixth of the year.
 
It was Ebrahim who made the difference in the middle frame, with his fourth and fifth goals of the campaign. Kulbis-Marino started things by carrying out of the defensive end and then setting Ebrahim loose down the left side. Ebrahim buried his shot from the bottom of the left circle.
 
The SHU power play converted at 14:44 to open the lead up to 3-1. Hunter Sansbury (Lomita, Calif.) took the initial shot on the play, from the middle of the blue line, which he put wide of the net to the left. The shot came off the end boards to Lombardi at the left post. The big fella flipped a backhand pass to the top of the crease for the waiting Ebrahim, who knocked the puck into the yawning net from there.
 
Bentley cut the gap to one all of 24 seconds later. Kramer took the puck behind the net again, going left to right this time. He wrapped around the right post and zipped a pass across the crease to Jonathan Bendorf, who had the one-time finish on his third of the year, at 15:08.
 
Bentley's Nik Armstrong-Kingkade was given a major penalty and a game misconduct for contact to the head at 18:08, which gave the Pios a five-minute power play through the end of the second and into the third. They put five shots on net on the advantage, but ultimately came up empty.
 
The first half of the final stanza would go without further scoring, before SHU put home an important insurance marker at 13:11. Marcus Joughin (Tecumseh, Ontario) intercepted a clearance attempt at the left half-wall and put a shot on net from there. It was saved, but the rebound came to the right circle for John Jaworski (Grinnell, Iowa), who quickly filtered it back to Walsh at the left post. Walsh had the easy finish on his team-leading 10^th of the season.
 
Bentley got goaltender Nicholas Grabko to the bench for the extra attacker with 3:39 to play and got a goal at 17:02 to make things interesting. Ethan Leyh put a long shot through traffic from the left point which found its way all the way home for his sixth of the season.
 
The Falcons would get Grabko back off the ice with 2:22 to play, but could put only one more shot on net, as the SHU defense held strong to finish off the 4-3 victory.
 
"Bentley is a team that plays really hard; I'm proud of our team, and the special teams played well," continued McDougall. "At the end of the day, it's a huge three points on the road, and we're heading back home tomorrow to try to complete the weekend."
 
Robbins (2-1-0) finished with 26 saves against 29 shots to pick up the win in the SHU net. Grabko (6-6-0), who was visibly ill in his crease near the end of the first period, stopped 26 of 30 shots in defeat.
 
The two teams will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday night at SHU, with a 7 p.m. puck drop at Martire Family Arena.