HAMILTON, N.Y. (October 12, 2024) – One night ago, Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey head coach C.J. Marottolo was very clear about what needed to be better on Saturday night for the second game of the season. He highlighted a solid forecheck, preached better defensive coverage and pointed out the importance of starting the game on time. One night later, the Pioneers put a much more complete effort together, blocked 22 shots and battled to a 3-3 (OT) tie on the road at Colgate. In the shootout, Cullen DeYoung (Canton, Mich.) stopped all three shots he faced as SHU picked up a 1-0 shootout victory.
 
"I thought tonight was a real solid road game," said Marottolo after the game. "We got contributions from up and down the lineup. Cullen DeYoung made some big saves in the third. Our penalty kill really came up big in the third, when we had to kill two penalties."
 
Though SHU (0-1-1) had a much cleaner opening period on Saturday than it did on Friday, it was Colgate (1-2-1) which came away with the stanza's only goal. A pair of Pios got caught deep in transition, which led to Ben Raymond having entirely too much room to maneuver down the left side. Raymond steamed around the outside of the last defender, cut out front and flipped home his first of the season at 6:46.
 
The Sacred Heart offense came alive in the back half of the second period, with three goals in a span of 4:42 to jump out to a 3-1 lead late in the frame. First, Tyler Ghirardosi (Montrose, British Columbia) caused some problems and forced a turnover behind the Colgate net. The puck quickly came out front to Matthew Guerra (Orlando, Fla.), who went bar-down for his first goal as a Pioneer, at 12:40.
 
Ghirardosi was the catalyst again at 16:52, after he tracked down a dump-in deep on the left-wing side. After doing so, he found John Driscoll (Littleton, Colo.) crashing down the middle of the zone, and the latter buried his first goal in a SHU uniform as well.
 
It took just 30 seconds for the Pios to double the lead to 3-1. This time, Gabe Blanchard (East Aurora, N.Y.) put a big shot towards the net form the left point and Felix Trudeau (Terrebonne, Quebec) redirected it en route to pick up his third goal of the weekend, at 17:22.
 
Colgate would respond with what proved to be a very important goal in the final minute of the stanza. Antonio Fernandez took a long shot through traffic from the middle of the blue line, which found its way all the way home for his second of the campaign.
 
Colgate's second transition goal of the night tied things up at 7:01 of the third period. The Raiders broke the other way on a 3-on-2 rush and got the puck to Brett Chorske on the right side. Chorske held, waited for the trailer to catch up and then hit Brett Merner in stride in the high slot. The latter fired home his first collegiate goal from there to level the game at 3-3.
 
Each team would come up empty on a power play in the latter stages of the third period and neither team could get much of anything going in overtime, as the game went into the books as a 3-3 tie.
 
"Overall, I think we learned a lot about our team this weekend," added Marottolo. "We went through some adversity, and I think there's a lot to pull out of this weekend going forward. Really proud of the effort tonight."
 
In the shootout, the first two rounds went scoreless before Guerra ripped one to the top-right corner in the third round. DeYoung made saves against all three of Colgate's shootout shooters and SHU took away a 1-0 shootout win.
 
DeYoung (0-1-1) finished the game with 30 saves against 33 shots in the SHU crease. Nick Haas (0-1-1) collected 23 saves against 26 shots in front of the Colgate net.
 
Sacred Heart will square off with Hockey East opponent Massachusetts, which is currently nationally ranked, in a home-and-home series next weekend. The teams will meet at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass., on Friday night, before clashing at Martire Family Arena on Saturday, in SHU's home opener. Puck drops is 7 p.m. both nights.