WEST POINT, N.Y. – The gap between first and second place in Atlantic Hockey America is tightening, while another big night for a freshman goalie helped the Pioneers pick up a point in a 2-2 overtime draw with Army in front of a near capacity crowd at Tate Rink.
 
Ajeet Gundarah stopped 28 of 30 shots, including 14 in the third period, to keep the SHU men's hockey team three points ahead of second-place Holy Cross after a game the visitors led twice.
 
Goal scorers must be a little selfish. However, SHU's stat leader was thinking "team first" when he set up the game's first tally just over five minutes in. After an Army defenseman fired a shot from the point off a body, the puck bounced into the neutral zone where Felix Trudeau got to it first. The junior winger, who had classmate Reid Pabich on his right with nothing but the goalie between them and the net, fought off a defender's stick swing as he cruised into the slot and faked a shot. When the Black Knight goalie committed to Trudeau, Sacred Heart's Hobey candidate quickly sent the puck over to Pabich for a one-timer and his 10^th goal of the season.
 
Consecutive Pio penalties late in the first led to an Army power play goal to even the score on the second advantage.
 
The visitors, who were outshot in the first but had an 11-3 edge over the next 20 minutes, cashed in on their initial advantage to take another lead midway through the second. Junior defenseman Mikey Adamson sent a rising wrister over JT Cataldo's left shoulder as the Army netminder was sliding to his right trying to kill off a 5-on-3. Adamson's ninth of the year and third in his last two games, was set up by a Marcus Joughin feed to the high slot. SHU came close with time left on the ensuing 5-on-4 but couldn't pull it off.
 
The first Black Knights goal came with two minutes left in the first. They hit the net a second time with just over three minutes left in the middle frame to have a 2-2 game at intermission, which was delayed by a scuffle involving the entirety of both squads after time expired.
 
Neutral zone turnovers and an effective home team forecheck made the ice look tilted and caused a busy third period for Gundarah, who saw his team outshot 14-5. SHU's outstanding rookie made numerous quality stops to get his team to overtime, where the Pios had two of the three shots on target but didn't have control of the puck until more than halfway through the five minutes.
 
Army, with the backing of a raucous senior night crowd, earned the second point by scoring twice in the shootout. Matthew Guerra had the only Pio shootout tally.
 
 
Pio Points
 
Sacred Heart has 47 points in first place with Holy Cross (44) and Bentley (43) close behind… SHU hit the pipe tonight at least three times…  Saturday's 4 p.m. rematch at Tate Rink is sold out and airs live on FloSports… If they are in the lineup on Saturday, three Pios will celebrate milestone appearances: Marcus Joughin and John Driscoll have 99 career games played, while Jake Bongo is at 49.