SHU GAME NOTES
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The fifth annual Connecticut Ice comes to the campus of Sacred Heart University for the first time this weekend. SHU hosts Yale Friday at 7:30 p.m., which follows the 4 p.m. matchup between No. 13 UConn and No. 15 Quinnipiac at Martire Family Arena. A limited number of tickets are available through sacredheartpioneers.com and TicketMaster.
The third-place game is Saturday at 4, while the championship contest is set for 7:30. All four games air live on SNY and FloSports.
The Pioneers (14-8-4), riding a three-game win streak and an unbeaten string of four that helped them garner 30 votes in the new uscho.com poll, are coming off a conference sweep at home of AIC. Nine different players hit the net, 15 skaters had a point and SHU scored four power-play goals on nine attempts as the home squad outscored its opponent 11-5 despite falling behind 1-0 in both contests.
Tyler Ghirardosi,
Matthew Guerra and
John Jaworski each had four-point weekends to help the Pios increase their lead in Atlantic Hockey America. Ghirardosi and
Felix Trudeau hit the net twice and
Marcus Joughin added a goal and three points. The Pio defense was led by
Hunter Sansbury, who had a goal, six blocked shots and four shots on target.
Cullen DeYoung got both victories in net with a combined 49 saves that included stopping seven of eight man-advantages.
Sacred Heart won the inaugural CT Ice in 2020, the pandemic canceled the 2021 edition and Quinnipiac has reeled off the last three titles with wins over UConn in the championship game. The first two events took place at Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport. Quinnipiac, 2023 national champion, hosted the third tournament and last year's CT Ice was at the XL Center in Hartford, the home of some Husky games.
The Bobcats bring a 14-7-2 record with first place in ECAC Hockey into the weekend coming off 6-3 win over Colgate and a 2-2 tie with Cornell at Hamden. UConn, which is 12-8-2, posted a 4-2 win and a 2-2 tie at No. 5 Maine last week in Hockey East play, while Yale (5-11-1), the 2013 national champions, lost at home in ECAC Hockey action to Clarkson, 7-4, before beating St. Lawrence, 3-2.
