FAIRFIELD, Conn. (October 26, 2024) – After dropping the front end of a back-to-back in painful fashion, the question is always how a team will respond on the second night. For the Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team, the answer on Saturday night was a more-disciplined 60 minutes, a little resiliency and a hard-fought conference win at Martire Family Arena.
Reid Pabich (Verona, Wis.) struck for the winner with a strong individual effort in the third period, as the Pioneers rallied for a 2-1 win over Holy Cross in Atlantic Hockey play.
When all was said and done for the weekend series, each team had let a lead get away and each team had pulled out a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory. It was SHU (2-3-1, 1-1-0 AHA) which got things done in regulation on Saturday night though, which allowed the Pioneers to claim four of the six standings points available from the two games.
Consistently one of the most-penalized teams in college hockey, Holy Cross (3-4-0, 2-2-0 AHA) did a good job of pulling SHU into its game on Friday night, when the two sides combined for 24 penalty minutes, each had at least five power-play chances, and Holy Cross used the last of its six man-advantages to pop a late goal and force overtime.
On Saturday, it was a different story. For the most part, Sacred Heart was content to let the Crusaders make their way to the penalty box again and again, and would use a power-play goal of its own to tie things late in the second. The Pioneers took just two penalties all night and killed them both off in the third period, once with the game tied and once while protecting the 2-1 lead down the stretch.
Cullen DeYoung (Canton, Mich.) had his second straight 30-save outing, against 31 shots, to post a 60-save weekend and pick up the win (2-3-1). This time around, he got the better of Thomas Gale (3-4-0), who impressed on Friday but stopped just 15 of 17 shots on Saturday.
"I think we did a good job of taking care of the front of the net and getting in the way of their net," said DeYoung after the game. "Guys were either blocking shots or boxing guys out and clearing a lane, allowing me to make saves."
After a scoreless first, it was Holy Cross which got things started with a pretty goal at 7:21 of the second frame. The entire line got into the action in transition, as Liam McLinskey – Friday night's overtime hero – zipped a pass from the right side all the way across to the left circle. Devin Phillips quickly found a seam back against the grain and targeted Jack Stockfish at the bottom of the right circle. Stockfish cut across the goal mouth and slipped a backhand between the pads of DeYoung to open the scoring with his fourth of the year.
SHU would draw level on the power play at 14:35, with its second man-advantage goal of the weekend. After holding the left point,
Max Dorrington (North Reading, Mass.) sent the puck down the left-wing boards to
John Jaworski (Grinnell, Iowa) in the corner. Jaworski found
Felix Trudeau (Terrebonne, Quebec) largely unattended out front, and the junior winger made a move around Gale to finish his team-leading fourth of the campaign at the left post.
Pabich did all the work himself on an unassisted tally at 8:15 of the third, which would stand as the game-winner. William Elias pinched to try to hold the puck in at the right point for Holy Cross, but when he tried to dump the puck deep, all he found was Pabich's shinpad instead. Pabich immediately turned on the jets, beat everybody down the left wing and snapped his second of the season inside the far post from the middle of the left circle.
"They tried to rim it into our defensive zone; I went a little hard and I just cheated it," said Pabich, describing his goal. "It was a 2-on-1 with me and Trudeau. Their D went to [Trudeau] and I shot it. The rest is history."
SHU has a home-and-home Atlantic Hockey series with Bentley on the schedule next weekend. The two will meet at Bentley on Friday night and at Sacred Heart on Saturday, with puck drop set for 7 p.m. both nights.
