FAIRFIELD, Conn. (March 4, 2023) – In many ways, Saturday night's second game was the mirror image of Friday night's contest between the Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team and Niagara. In Friday's Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal series opener, Niagara posted a 34-22 advantage in shots, but SHU picked up a 3-1 victory. On Saturday, it was the Pios who controlled the shots battle, 38-24, but the Purple Eagles took a 4-1 win to extend their season.
"We played a good hockey game tonight; we had the puck a lot and generated a lot of scoring chances," said SHU head coach C.J. Marottolo after the game. "I give a lot of credit to Niagara, they blocked [21] shots and had great goaltending."
Any way you slice it, it all added up to a do-or-die Game Three between the two teams on Sunday night. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Martire Family Arena.
"This is what you live and die for as a hockey player," said Marottolo, regarding Sunday's series finale. "Our guys are champing at the bit to go tomorrow. That's our mindset for tomorrow: we have to be ready at the drop of the puck."
SHU (17-16-3) came out buzzing on Saturday night and struck for the opener at the 7:09 mark of the first. Conner Hutchison (Hicksville, N.Y.) made a long feed up the left side of the ice to send the Pios the other way on the rush. In the offensive end, John Jaworski (Grinnell, Iowa) made a circle-to-circle feed to find Neil Shea (Marshfield, Mass.) for the one-time finish on the latter's 14th of the season, from the bottom of the right circle.
From there though, it was four unanswered for Niagara (17-16-3) the rest of the way. The Purple Eagles evened things less than two minutes later, on Shane Ott's ninth of the year at 9:05. Ryan Cox provided the feed from behind the net on the left side, and Ott had the finish right on the doorstep.
Niagara notched the eventual game-winner just 76 seconds into the middle frame, after Olivier Gauthier forced a turnover behind the net. Gauthier stepped above the goal line on the right-wing side and slipped a shot through Luke Lush (Sherwood Park, Alberta) from a sharp angle for his ninth of the year.
SHU posted shots advantages of 13-7 in the second and 12-8 in the third, but instead it was Niagara which tallied an insurance marker early in the third, much like SHU had done against the run of play the night before. Ryan Naumovski head-manned a rush into the offensive zone on the right side, which eventually resulted in Brandon Stanley receiving the puck with room to shoot at the top of the right circle. Shoot he did, and Naumovski – by now between the hash marks – was able to deflect home his eighth of the campaign at 5:18.
The Purple Eagles later tacked on an empty-net goal at 16:14 to create the 4-1 final, as Casey Carreau notched his eighth of the year from inside his own blue line.
Lush (14-15-3) finished with 20 saves against 23 shots in the loss for SHU. Chad Veltri (16-13-3) piled up 37 saves against 38 shots at the other end for Niagara.
