SENIOR WEEKEND
It's a pivotal home-and-home for the second-place Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team, which has a four-point buffer to third-place Holy Cross, but must play the Crusaders twice this weekend. With four points from the weekend, the Pioneers can lock up a finish of no worse than second in Atlantic Hockey, regardless of what else happens around the league. Puck drop against Holy Cross is 7 p.m. both nights, with Friday's contest at the Hart Center in Worcester, Mass., and Saturday's game back at the Martire Family Arena in Fairfield. Each contest is Senior Night for the home team.  Both games are available worldwide on FloSports, while Saturday's game will air live on SNY in the tri-state area. Randy Brochu and Freddie Coleman have the call.

LAST WEEKEND
SHU made its farthest road trip of the season last weekend and split a pair out west at Air Force. Marcus Joughin had 1-1-2, including the game-winning goal, in a 3-2 victory on Friday night, while Air Force responded with an 18-save shutout from Guy Blessing and a 2-0 win on Saturday. Justin Robbins was spectacular all weekend in the SHU crease, stopping 67 of 71 pucks sent his way, including a career-high 36 saves in Saturday's losing effort.

SCOUTING THE CRUSADERS
Holy Cross is surging. The Crusaders are winners of five straight and are 7-2-1 with just one regulation loss in 10 Atlantic Hockey games since the calendar flipped to 2024. They have points in each of their last seven (6-1-0), with the only blemish being an overtime loss at Martire Family Arena on Jan. 19. Liam McLinskey has gone for 4-10-14 across the 10-game span, while Jack Ricketts has scored seven times (7-3-10). This weekend matches up two of the country's best penalty-kill units, with Holy Cross ranking fourth in the nation (86.2%) and SHU right behind in fifth (85.9%).

PREVIOUSLY AGAINST HOLY CROSS
The two teams split a home-and-home series just shy of a month ago, but it was Holy Cross which came away with four of the six points. The Pios chalked up a 2-1 (OT) win on Friday night, courtesy of John Jaworski's OT winner. Holy Cross answered with a 5-2 victory on its home ice on Saturday.

ALL-TIME SERIES
The two teams have met 91 times in their history, with Sacred Heart holding a narrow, 44-41-6 advantage overall, and Holy Cross holding an even slimmer, 33-32-5 margin across 70 Atlantic Hockey contests. Home ice has dominated the series, with the Pioneers putting together a 25-16-4 record across the three buildings they've called home, including 2-0-1 in the first three meetings at Martire Family Arena. The Crusaders have been an equally-dominant 26-16-2 against SHU at the Hart Center in Worcester. Sacred Heart holds a 10-5-1 advantage in the series since the start of the 2019-20 campaign.

UP NEXT
It's the regular-season finale for SHU next weekend, as the Pioneers make a trip to Waltham, Mass., for a one-off with Bentley. Puck drop is set for 5:30 p.m. at Bentley Arena.