HARTFORD (January 27, 2024) – For the second straight day, it was 35-plus shots for the Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team, a feat it had not accomplished all season. For the second straight day, the Pioneers got nothing to show for it.
Chikara Hanzawa (Tokyo, Japan) got things started on the right foot, but Yale scored the next three goals of the contest to deal SHU a 3-2 defeat on Saturday afternoon at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The contest was the third-place game at the fourth annual CT Ice, hosted by the University of Connecticut.
Sacred Heart (11-14-2) piled up a 17-7 advantage in shots on goal in the first period – en route to a 37-18 margin for the game – and eventually opened the scoring at the 15:21 mark.
Cole Galata (Newmarket, Ontario) worked the puck behind the net from the left side and eventually got it to Hanzawa down low in the right circle. Hanzawa was taken down as he shot, but managed to pop the puck into the top-right corner for his second of the season.
Yale (8-13-0) would answer before the period was out though, at 18:36. SHU turned the puck over at its offensive blue line, which let the Bulldogs start a rush the other way. The Pioneers had numbers back on the rush, but David Andreychuk was able to slip behind the defense after Yale gained the blue line. David Chen found him at the top of the crease, with a pass right through the heart of the zone, and Andreychuk put away his third of the year.
Yale then struck early in the second and third periods to open the lead up to 3-1, despite getting outshot 20-11 over the final 40 minutes. The Bulldogs took the lead just 22 seconds into the third, after a defensive-zone turnover put the puck right on the stick of Briggs Gammill in the left circle.
Justin Robbins (New York, N.Y.) got a piece of the shot, but not enough to keep it out, and Gammill chalked up his seventh of the season.
The dagger came on the rush at 6:19 of the third. After gaining the zone on the left-wing side, JoJo Tanaka-Campbell fired a shot inside the far post from the top of the left circle to tally his first of the season and make it a two-goal game.
SHU came to life again in the back half of the third period, but could only claw one back, at 18:55, with Robbins off for the extra attacker. From the left wing,
Jake Bongo (Ridgefield, Conn.) found a seam across the slot to
John Jaworski (Grinnell, Iowa) in the middle of the right circle. Jaworski did not miss from there, as he salted away his 10
th of the campaign. He is the third Pioneer to reach double-digit goals this season (
TJ Walsh,
Kevin Lombardi).
The Pioneers got Robbins to the bench again inside the final minute, but could only put one further shot on Jack Stark, which he turned aside to finish off Yale's 3-2 victory.
Robbins (3-4-0) made 15 saves against 18 shots and suffered the loss in net for SHU, which conceded nine goals on 39 shots across the weekend. Stark (6-6-0) stopped 35 of 37 in the win for Yale, one day after making 35 saves against 36 shots in the Bulldogs' 1-0 loss to No. 7/8 Quinnipiac in Friday night's first-round contest.
It was the first-ever fourth-place finish for SHU at CT Ice. The Pioneers have nothing but Atlantic Hockey games on the docket the rest of the way, and will look to bounce back with a home series against American International on Feb. 2-3. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. both nights at Martire Family Arena, and tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
