FAIRFIELD, Conn. (November 23, 2024) – The Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team just keeps racking up points. Daniel Ebrahim (Brooklin, Ontario) potted the only shootout goal on Saturday night, as the Pioneers made it a five-point weekend with a 1-0 shootout win, following a 3-3 (OT) Atlantic Hockey tie with visiting Rochester Institute of Technology at Martire Family Arena. SHU has now piled up 17 points across the last three weekends and is unbeaten in six straight (5-0-1) for the first time in five years.
 
Saturday night's contest started innocuously enough, with just one goal through the first 40 minutes. RIT (3-10-1, 2-6-1 AHA) struck on the power play at 16:12 of the first, after Mathieu Cobetto-Roy took the initial shot from the top of the right circle. Ajeet Gundarah (Richmond, British Columbia) made the first save, but Tanner Andrew stuffed the rebound between his pads to open the scoring with his fourth of the season.
 
The game went without further scoring until the third period, when it came unhinged. SHU (7-5-2, 6-3-1 AHA) had the lead before two minutes had elapsed. First, John Jaworski (Grinnell, Iowa) and Felix Trudeau (Terrebonne, Quebec) worked a give-and-go on the right side on the rush, and the latter flipped a backhand to the far side from the bottom of the circle for his fifth of the campaign, just 42 seconds into the frame.
 
Only 70 seconds later, a big hustle play from Jeremi Tremblay (Quebec City, Quebec) put the Pios out front. From his own blue line Gabe Blanchard (East Aurora, N.Y.) lofted a dump into the RIT zone, which landed to the right of the goal and bounded off the end boards. Tremblay hit top gear through the neutral zone, beat everybody to the scene and surprised Tiger goaltender Jakub Krbecek at the right post for his second of the year, at 1:52.
 
The goals kept coming from there. RIT evened at 2-2 at 6:41, just after a power play expired, when Dimitri Mikrogiannakis' shot was blocked, but the rebound came straight to Matthew Wilde outside the right post. Wilde quickly put away his fourth of the season from there. SHU looked to respond just 48 seconds later, as Mikey Adamson (Quincy, Mass.) put a long shot home through traffic, but the goal was waved off due to goaltender interference.
 
The Pios reclaimed the lead for real with a power-play marker at 10:52. Marcus Joughin (Tecumseh, Ontario) leaned into a big one-timer from the middle of the blue line and Max Dorrington (North Reading, Mass.) redirected it near the hash marks for his third of the season.
 
RIT refused to go quietly though and found the tying goal at 16:02 to force overtime. Grady Hobbs sent the puck hard around the boards on the right side and then cut to the net front. Tyler Fukakusa dug the puck out on the left-wing boards and fired it to the top of the crease, where Hobbs jammed home his first of the campaign.
 
Overtime went scoreless, which sent the game to a shootout, where Ebrahim dealt the only blow, in the second round. He came into the zone with speed, slowed up at the hash marks and snapped a shot between Krbecek's pads. Gundarah answered with a stuff of Fukakusa at the left post, and then both sides missed the net in the third round, as SHU took a 1-0 shootout win and the extra standings point.

The last time SHU went unbeaten in six straight was a six-game winning streak in November and December of 2019.
 
Gundarah (5-1-1) finished with 22 saves against 25 shots, plus the big shootout save, in the Sacred Heart crease. Krbecek (3-5-1) turned aside 30 of 33 at the other end for RIT.
 
SHU is back in action Thanksgiving weekend, for a pair of Atlantic Hockey games at Holy Cross on Nov. 29-30. Puck drop is 7 p.m. both nights at Hart Center in Worcester, Mass.