WEST POINT, N.Y. (January 16, 2024) – The Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team showed some resiliency on the road on Tuesday night, but the team would have been better advised to start the game on time. A rough first period put the Pioneers behind the eight ball from the get-go at Tate Rink, though they would try their best to claw their way out. Daniel Ebrahim (Brooklin, Ontario), Jake Bongo (Ridgefield, Conn.) and Andrius Kulbis-Marino (Methuen, Mass.) all found the net for SHU, but host Army got a hat trick from Nik Hong en route to a 5-3 victory in the Atlantic Hockey contest.
 
There's no two ways about it, the first period was ugly for SHU. Army (7-15-1, 5-10-1 AHA) won races and battles all up and down the ice, dictated the pace throughout and posted a 14-2 shots advantage on the way to a 3-0 first-intermission lead. Hong had the game's first two strikes. At 5:19, he took a feed right out front from Jake Hewitt and finished inside the right post for his third of the year. At 16:15, Hong started a 2-on-1 on the right side, played give-and-go with Vincent Salice on the rush and buried his second of the night.
 
Army capped the period inside the final 20 seconds, with a clean faceoff win in the left-wing circle. Barron Woodring won the draw back to John Driscoll, who hammered his fourth of the campaign past Justin Robbins (Alpine, N.J.) on the near side, at 19:47.
 
"Tough loss tonight; basically, it came down to we didn't start on time," said SHU head coach C.J. Marottolo after the game. "First 20 minutes was about races and battles; we didn't win a race and we didn't win a battle. You spot a team three goals and it's a hard hole to get out of."
 
SHU (10-11-2, 10-6-1 AHA) came out looking like a different team in the second stanza. This time around, it was the Pios who chalked up a 17-4 edge in shots, and they put home a pair of goals to make it a one-goal game heading to the third. At 11:24, Dante Fantauzzi (North York, Ontario) and Mikey Adamson (Quincy, Mass.) combined to send Ebrahim through the neutral zone and into the offensive end with a head of steam. Ebrahim snapped a shot, which was deflected by the oncoming poke check of an Army defender and slipped up under the crossbar for Ebrahim's sixth of the season.
 
Less than two minutes later, at 13:17, the Pios found another. On the right wing, Tyler Spott (Toronto, Ontario) worked the puck up high to Kulbis-Marino, who fired from the right point. Evan Szary made the initial save, but the rebound came into the right circle for Bongo, who put away the third goal of his rookie season.
 
SHU would outshoot Army in the third as well, 14-11, but the problem with digging a big early hole is it leaves no margin for error. The Black Knights came out and struck just 48 seconds into the final period, to stick the Pios with a two-goal deficit once again. Michael Sacco set up Mac Gadowsky in the left circle, though the latter saw his initial shot saved by Robbins. Gadowsky stayed persistent and put away the rebound for his second of the year.
 
The Pios once again closed within a goal at 14:08, after Connor Hutchison (Hicksville, N.Y.) found Kulbis-Marino in the high slot. The latter drifted into the right circle and then snapped home his third of the campaign. Kulbis-Marino has five points (2-3-5) in the last three games.
 
SHU got Robbins to the bench for the extra attacker with just over two minutes to play, but eventually Hong was able to send a shot towards the empty net from inside his own blue line. The puck was running out of steam at the end, with Sansbury in hot pursuit, but it managed to just trickle across the line to seal the deal before he could bat it away, at 18:32.
 
"I give our guys credit for how hard they pushed in the second and third, but to make up that ground, it's just too much to give," continued Marottolo. "Army is a good team, they've been playing really well, and giving a three-goal lead to any team, it's going to be hard to climb out of."
 
Robbins (2-2-0) finished with 24 saves against 28 shots in the SHU crease. Szary (6-7-0) stopped 29 of 32 to backstop Army to the victory.
 
The Pios have a home-and-home with Holy Cross on tap for the weekend. The two will meet at Martire Family Arena on Friday night, before SHU makes the return trip to the Hart Center in Worcester, Mass., on Saturday night. Game time both nights is set for 7 p.m. Tickets for Friday night's contest are available through Ticketmaster.