FAIRFIELD, Conn. (October 8, 2023) – Sunday afternoon's men's ice hockey exhibition at Martire Family Arena was a fairly-pedestrian, 2-0 affair through 40 minutes.
 
Then the third period happened.
 
Sacred Heart poured in six goals in the final frame, including three on the power play, to roll to an 8-2 victory over visiting Ottawa. Daniel Ebrahim (Brooklin, Ontario) led the way with 2-1-3, while Mark Cheremeta (Parkland, Fla.) scored a pair as well. In all, the SHU power play went 4-for-6 on the day.
 
"Just taking in the whole weekend, it was very productive," said Sacred Heart head coach C.J. Marottolo after the game, referring both to Sunday's win and Saturday's exhibition with Hockey East member Merrimack. "Today's game couldn't have been written up better… they really tested us in some areas."
 
For most of the afternoon, a pair of tallies just 3:05 apart in the first period were the game's only scoring. Grant Anderson (Plymouth, Minn.) got the scoring started at the 5:01 mark, as he finished off a play which saw Blake Humphrey (Penfield, N.Y.) and Chikara Hanzawa (Tokyo, Japan) pick up assists. Humphrey then got one of his own at 8:06, as he rifled home a one-timer from the left circle on the power play.
 
The game then went dormant until the third period, when Ottawa made things interesting right away. Right off the opening faceoff, David Lafrance and Charles-Antoine Roy worked to spring Max Grondin in on a partial breakaway, and the latter cut the lead in half eight seconds into the stanza.
 
The two sides traded punches through the middle of the frame. SHU regained a two-goal lead at 8:31, when Cheremeta buried a one-timer from the left circle in a 4-on-4 situation. Ottawa answered just 13 seconds later though, as Tommy Bouchard got loose, steamed through the right circle and picked the top-left corner at 8:44.
 
Not to be deterred, SHU reclaimed the two-goal lead again, at 4-2, on the man-advantage at 10:48. Braeden Tuck (Calgary, Alberta) found Marcus Joughin (Tecumseh, Ontario) for a one-time blast on the left side.
 
"They scored right off the bat in the third, and then [after the Cheremeta goal] they scored again on the very next shift, and it was a 3-2 game," said Marottolo. "We faced some adversity and stuck with it."
 
From there, it was all Pioneers. Ebrahim scored twice in a span of seven seconds to push the lead out to 6-2. The first came just moments after the SHU penalty kill finished off its third kill of the day, as Ebrahim zipped into the offense end and sniped the top-left corner. Joughin won the ensuing faceoff to Andrius Kulbis-Marino (Methuen, Mass.), who sprung Ebrahim right back in on the left side. Another snipe led to another celebration, and the Pios were rolling.
 
Two more power-play goals finished things off late as Ottawa took five third-period penalties. Cheremeta hammered home another one-timer in a 5-on-3 situation at 15:42, and John Jaworski (Grinnell, Iowa) capped things off with one final power-play one-timer, at 16:25.
 
"What we liked most about our group tonight is how they stuck with it; there was great energy on the bench and eventually the power play got some huge goals for us," continued Marottolo. "The PK got some huge blocks, too. Just an overall great team effort, from the net out."
 
Three different goaltenders combined to make 20 saves against 22 shots in the SHU crease. Cullen DeYoung (Canton, Mich.) had the heaviest workload, with 13 stops against 15 shots, while logging 33 minutes.
 
Ottawa used three netminders as well, but got only 20 saves against 28 shots. Jean-Philippe Tourigny had the roughest go of it, as he was beaten six times on 15 shots in the third period.
 
The exhibition schedule now behind them, the Pios will crank things up for real next weekend. Reigning ECAC champion Colgate comes to town for a weekend set at Martire Family Arena. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday night, Oct. 13-14.