(West Springfield, MA) – The AIC Yellow Jackets staved off a third-period comeback attempt by the Sacred Heart Pioneer Hockey team, as SHU fell 7-4 Friday night at the Olympia Ice Center.

Nathan Sliwinski scored 1:55 into the game and Nick Grasso added another at 6:10 to give the Yellow jackets an early 2-0 lead.  Tye Lewis (Vancouver, WA) brought SHU within one, scoring on a vacated net off a weird bounce on a dump in to the backboards by Will Rayner (Newton, MA). 

In the second period, Jason Popek scored on the power play at 11:32 and once again even strength at 15:48 to open up a 4-1 lead.  In the final minute of the second period, Brandon Fagerheim and Adam Pleskach scored short-handed goals eight seconds apart to take a 6-1 lead into the second intermission.

Brian Sheehan (St. Louis, MO) scored twice in the third, with a goal by Matt Gingera (Winnipeg, MB) sandwiched in between to bring the Pioneers within two.  Sheehan took a pass from Ben Lake () off a feed from behind the net and one-timed his third goal in at 6:44.  Gingera added another at 8:34, with assists to Eric Delong (Oakville, MB) and Ben Ketchum (Greenwich, CT).  Sheehan added another from Delong and Jordan Ciccarello (New Hartford, CT) at 17:04, however Michael Penny went on to score an empty-netter to close the scoring.

Steven Legatto (Kelowna, BC) stopped all 15 shots AIC put on his net, after relieving Andrew Bodnarchuk (Saskatoon, SK).

The Pioneers take on Air Force in two games next weekend in Colorado Springs, CO.