Box Score FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Winning a quarterfinal playoff series in the decisive game is big, and it's even better when it ties the program record for victories. That's what happened tonight as the Sacred Heart men's hockey team skated past Air Force for victory No. 21 in game three of best-of-three Atlantic Hockey America series at Martire Family Arena.

Four Pioneers found the net while Ajeet Gundarah stopped 29 of 30 shots tonight and 113 of 118 on the weekend to advance the home team into the semifinals against Bentley next weekend on SHU's campus.

The rookie goalie from Richmond, B.C., stood on his head all weekend to help Sacred Heart get to its first semifinal appearance since 2009-10. He needed a dozen saves in the second and 11 more in the third in this game while stopping all four Falcon power plays.

After playing nearly two full overtimes last night, the teams went scoreless for the first 38 minutes tonight before one of the Pio captains broke the bubble. John Jaworski, who lost the faceoff in the offensive end, pulled back and watched as Reid Pabich won the puck along the boards and skated behind the net. The junior winger backhanded a pass across the slot that passed both gray and blue jerseys before being met by Jaworski moving forward to power a snapshot stick side with 1:38 left in the second frame. Jaworski's 12^th of the year could not have come at a better time.

"Gotta give credit to my linemates Pabich and (Felix) Trudeau, they know how to work down low and it was lucky enough to find me," said Jaworski. "Pabich made a great pass out front and squeaked through some guys and I just shot it on net."

His tally followed a heroic sequence by Gundarah, who proved why he is one of the nation's top young netminders. He made a save and tried to cover the rebound with a mess of bodies around him. The puck squirted out to a blue jersey and quickly moved it across to a teammate with lots of open net to look at. That's when the rookie netminder bolted across and knocked the rising shot past the net.

"I just try to stay focused and not have any mental lapses while we're in the zone," said Gundarah, the Mike Richter Award candidate. "We kind of kept it to the outside, so we did a really good job defensively."

SHU made it 2-0 early in the third on one of the best goals of the season. The puck came out of the corner in the home team's defensive end to defenseman Michael Rubin, who skated up the right side, passed the puck off the boards to himself and then skated into the right circle spotting forward Jake Bongo ahead of the defense. The rookie blueliner put a perfect pass on the backhand of Bongo for a one-time redirection into the upper corner. Air Force goalie Guy Blessing was sliding to his right as he saw the pass coming, but Bongo's shot headed for the opposite side. The sophomore from Ridgefield, Conn., ended up following the puck into the net on his third tally of the season.

"It was a great play by Michael Rubin. I knew as soon as he got it he was going right to me, so I tried to go hard to the net and made a great play on my stick," said Bongo. "I kind of got buried right after it so I didn't really see but I heard the horn."

The Pios, who killed off three penalties in the third, got empty-net tallies from Pabich and Cole Galata to put the game away before the visitors could get on the board.