FAIRFIELD, Conn. – It was a magnificent stage for the Sacred Heart Men's Hockey Team to produce its best offensive night in five years. Playing in front of more than 4,000 fans in game two of the CT Ice semifinals, the Pioneers registered an 8-2 win over Yale.

SHU will take a four-game win streak into Saturday's 7:30 p.m. championship game against No. 12 UConn at Martire Family Arena, hosting CT Ice for the first time.

The first-place Pios (15-8-4), who received 30 votes in this week's uscho.com poll, enjoyed their best offensive output since scoring nine times against Mercyhurst in 2020. Tonight, they did it with three power-play goals and six consecutive tallies beginning in the second period.

Eight different players hit the net led by Mikey Adamson (1-3-4), Felix Trudeau (1-2-3) and Marcus Joughin (1-2-3), while Cullen DeYoung stopped 24 shots.

"We believe we have a ton of depth throughout the lineup, the d-core, and even with goaltending," said SHU Head Coach CJ Marottolo. "We basically roll four lines and feel confident with all four of them in any situation. They've earned that with their play throughout the year. It's always nice to have more bullets in the gun."

The Pios got on the scoreboard 6:11 into the game on a power play when graduate center Max Dorrington re-directed a pass from Trudeau, the junior winger. Dorrington got to the feed with a defender on his hip and slipped it inside the left post for his 10^th goal this season. Adamson, a junior blueliner, picked up an assist on his pass to Trudeau from the point.

The Bulldogs answered almost two minutes later on their own power play to even things, but the host team grabbed the lead again with 6:35 left in the first. Joughin, a junior center, won the faceoff back to Adamson, who took a few strides before firing a shot toward the net. Joughin raced from the dot to the low slot and got a piece of the shot to direct it past Noah Pak for his third tally of the year.

Yale took advantage of yet another power play to send the teams to the first intermission tied at two.

Somebody must have given the team an earful in the home locker room. SHU hit the net 33 and 51 seconds into the second and then added a third straight at 6:10 to make it 5-2.

Trudeau's one-timer from the top of the right circle off an Adamson feed got things started just before senior Daniel Ebrahim (third goal) one-timed a pass from sophomore winger Jake Hewitt, who had skated with the puck behind the Yale net. When the dust settled, Yale had a new goalie and soon had another penalty kill.

Adamson's shot from the high slot, his sixth goal, went through traffic to increase the margin to three.

The Pios increased the string of prosperity to five with goals from Sansbury (sixth) and first year Michael Rubin. Sansbury fired a wrister from the right circle after taking a feed from junior defenseman John Driscoll. Rubin, who notched his first career goal, gathered a pass from Ebrahim in the middle of the slot and flipped a wrister past Luke Pearson at 14:58 of the second to make it 7-2.

The streak went to six 86 seconds into the third when sophomore winger Jake Bongo got his first of the season from a few feet to the left of the crease after getting a pass from Cole Galata.

Eight goals on 28 shots and seven power plays. Sacred Heart knows it won't be that easy tomorrow night in the CT Ice championship game.

Adamson summed up the Pios this way, "we go to battle every day and are friends by the end of it. It's a good feeling coming off the ice when you can keep those relationships and stay together at all times. Its been big for us this season, and heading into tomorrow, we want to prove that we can play against anybody. We're ready to go."