PRINCETON, N.J. (December 9, 2023) – A night after a big struggle on home ice, the Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team bounced back with a much better effort on Saturday night at Hobey Baker Rink. The Pios went on the road to close out the first half of the season with a 2-2 (OT) tie at ECAC member Princeton. SHU claimed victory in the shootout, 2-1, courtesy of a highlight-reel goal from Mark Cheremeta (Parkland, Fla.).
 
After being held to five shots in the first period on Friday night, Sacred Heart (8-7-1) put 12 shots on the Princeton goal in the opening 20 minutes and came away with the stanza's only goal, at the 12:38 mark. After Tyler Spott (Toronto, Ontario) forced a turnover in the defensive end, Rylee Hlusiak (Barrie, Ontario) sent Daniel Ebrahim (Brooklin, Ontario) the other way on the rush. Ebrahim steamed down the left side and finished off his third of the season while crashing to the end boards.
 
Princeton (5-5-2) drew level at 2:38 of the second frame. Noah de la Durantaye found some room to maneuver in the high slot and snapped his first of the campaign into the top-right corner.
 
SHU got the lead back before the second period was out, at 11:04. On the rush into the offensive end on the left side, Ebrahim dropped the puck back to Jake Bongo (Ridgefield, Conn.), who filtered it across to Hunter Sansbury (Lomita, Calif.) on the right side. Sansbury wired home a rocket from the top of the right circle for his third of the season.
 
The Pios had to kill off a major penalty late in the third, after Ebrahim collided with Princeton goaltender Ethan Pearson. The penalty-kill unit came up big though, and surrendered just one shot on goal and blocked three others across the five-minute kill.
 
"Obviously very, very, very proud of our effort tonight," said head coach C.J. Marottolo after the game. "Our guys showed a lot of resilience, a lot of battle, and grit for each other, and nothing symbolized that than the five-minute kill that our guys just laid it on the line."
 
Again, Princeton had the answer early in the next period, at 2:41 of the third. David Jacobs turned on the jets down the left wing and found Jack Cronin out front for the latter's team-leading seventh of the season.
 
From there, the remainder of the third period and all five minutes of the 3-on-3 overtime went without further scoring. Though it was a non-conference contest and thus nothing further was at stake, the two teams conducted a shootout, which SHU won, 2-1.
 
After the first two rounds went scoreless, SHU's Kevin Lombardi (Schwenksville, Pa.) and Princeton's de la Durantaye both found the net in the third round, to force a fourth. In the fourth round, Cheremeta tucked a highlight-reel, one-handed, backhand finish inside the right post. Cullen DeYoung (Canton, Mich.) – who made his first collegiate start in the SHU crease – followed up with a stop against Cronin to finish things off.
 
"Really happy for Cullen DeYoung to get his first collegiate start and [the shootout win]," continued Marottolo. "Our guys just battled tonight. Princeton's a good team, I really like their team. They pushed, we pushed, and it was a really cool [shootout] finish there by Mark Cheremeta… Overall, really happy with our effort; way to end the first half on a solid note."
 
DeYoung (0-0-1) made 32 saves against 34 shots to pick up the tie in his first college start. Pearson (0-2-1) made 17 saves against 19 shots over the first two periods in the Princeton crease before giving way to Arthur Smith at the start of the third. Smith stopped all eight shots he faced in the third.
 
The game wrapped up the first half for SHU, which will return to action on Dec. 30, when New Hampshire pays a visit to the Martire Family Arena. Puck drop is 7 p.m. and tickets are available via Ticketmaster.