FAIRFIELD, Conn. (November 15, 2024) – The Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team had not been bad, necessarily, through two periods on Friday night, but still trailed anyway. The Pioneers stuck to their game and found an extra gear in the third period, when they struck three times in the final six minutes to pull out a 4-2 Atlantic Hockey win over Robert Morris at Martire Family Arena. Reid Pabich (Verona, Wis.) struck for the game-winner with just 12.2 seconds to play, and first-year goaltender Ajeet Gundarah (Richmond, British Columbia) picked up his first career assist on an empty-net goal.
 
SHU (5-5-1, 4-3-0 AHA) spent a good chunk of the night chasing a goal, after RMU (4-2-2, 1-2-1 AHA) opened the scoring at 14:14 of the first. Walter Zacher took the initial shot from the middle of the blue line, and it was deflected en route by Mitch Deelstra. Gundarah made the save, but Michael Felsing knocked home the rebound at the left post for his second of the year.
 
Sacred Heart drew level before the midpoint of the second, but trailed again at the second intermission. At 7:26 of the second, Pabich and Jake Hewitt (Fitchburg, Mass.) worked to dig the puck out along the left-wing boards and got it to Jeremi Tremblay (Quebec City, Quebec). Tremblay fired from the top of the left circle, used a Colonial defenseman as a screen and picked the top-left corner for his first collegiate goal.
 
RMU reclaimed the lead at 19:17, after the Pioneers turned the puck over to Patrick Johnson in the neutral zone. Johnson then found a seam in the defense as he crossed the blue line and snapped home a shot from the top of the left circle for his third of the season.
 
SHU had posted an 11-5 shots advantage in the first, still had a 20-15 edge through two periods and just kept working in the third. The Pioneers would tally an 11-6 shots advantage in the final frame and finally saw the fruits of their labor ripen in the final six minutes. Hewitt was opportunistic and made the best of a little puck luck at 14:35, after his first shot was blocked but came right back to him. He buried the rebound from right between the hash marks for his third of the campaign to draw Sacred Heart level.
 
Just when it seemed like each team was set to bank a point and head to overtime, lightning struck for the Pios, in the form of Pabich's third of the year. Garrett Sundquist (South Glastonbury, Conn.) and John Jaworski (Grinnell, Iowa) put in the work in the left-wing corner and were able to pop the puck free for Pabich along the goal line. With two RMU defenders caught south of the goal line, Pabich had space to work with. He curled to the faceoff dot and snuck a shot past Croix Kochendorfer on the short side to vault SHU out front.
 
"It shows that good teams find a way to win," said Pabich after the game, regarding the late heroics. "We've just got to keep building off of that."
 
Max Dorrington (North Reading, Mass.) won the ensuing faceoff, which all but ensured three points for the Pioneers, but things got even better, as he won it all the way back to Gundarah in net. Gundarah dished it to his right for Hunter Sansbury (Lomita, Calif.) who sent it 190 feet the other way and into the middle of the vacated Robert Morris net to create the 4-2 final, earn his goaltender an assist and ice SHU's third straight win.
 
Gundarah (3-1-0) made 19 saves against 21 shots to pick up the win in the SHU crease. Kochendorfer (4-2-1) stopped 27 of 31 at the other end for Robert Morris.
 
The two teams wrap up the weekend series on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Martire Family Arena.