Three conference series were played in Atlantic Hockey this past weekend, and only one ended in a sweep. And it was an impressive sweep for Sacred Heart at that.
The Pioneers went to RIT and ultimately improved to 5-6-1 in league play with back-to-back wins for the first time this season, 4-3 and 6-4. SHU needed overtime to decide Friday’s game before scoring three times in the third period the following night to complete the sweep against a team that has won two of the last four Atlantic Hockey championships.
Head coach C.J. Marottolo’s team did not sweep a league set last season until the first weekend of February at Mercyhurst, but the Pioneers have now won four straight contests against the Tigers after taking a pair of playoff elimination games last March in Rochester.
Senior defenseman Mike Lee was the lone player to put the Pioneers ahead in the series opener. The Hamden, Conn., native gave SHU a 2-1 lead with 4:27 left in the second period. RIT scored next two goals to take a 3-2 lead before Northeastern transfer Jason Cotton scored an unassisted, power-play goal at 11:39 of the third and Lee’s third goal of the year decided the game with five seconds remaining in overtime.
The hosts took a 4-3 lead 2:20 into the third period of the following night’s game, but SHU scored three unanswered goals to clinch the win. Junior Austin McIlmurray tallied the winner with 8:14 left after assisting on defenseman Ruslan Rakhmatov’s first goal of the season, though it was a two-goal effort from sophomore Matt Tugnutt that led the offense on Saturday.
The Pioneers had a sure thing in goal entering the season as Brett Magnus had played in 95 career games over his first three seasons, but freshman Josh Benson has been a difference-maker of late. Benson has started four straight games and six of the last seven, amassing three wins and a .911 save percentage over the former stretch.
All of a sudden, the Pioneers are tied with Canisius for seventh place in the Atlantic Hockey standings, but they sit two wins shy of second-place American International and Niagara entering break.
Dogs are hot…
Two of the six teams in college hockey that finished this weekend with unbeaten streaks running five games or longer hail from New England. In fact, Northeastern has the nation’s longest unblemished streak with six consecutive wins dating back to Nov. 3 at Boston University and reached the 10-win mark before Christmas for the second consecutive season.
Yale jumped atop of the ECAC standings with wins over Rensselaer and then-No. 11 Union, but the Bulldogs’ current 5-0-1 streak will be put on the line in their final game of the first semester Tuesday against a UMass team that has lost only once in its last 11 outings.
The only team in the country with a longer current unbeaten streak than Northeastern is St. Cloud State. Those Huskies are 8-0-2 over their last 10 games and would still be unbeaten on the season if it weren’t for a 3-2 loss on Oct. 27 at Northeastern.
Northeastern sophomore Zach Solow scored a league-leading seven goals in his team’s last six games, while freshman Tyler Madden reached the 10-point mark in that span after scoring a goal and three assists in Saturday’s 7-2 win at Merrimack.
For Yale, freshman Justin Pearson (Nashua, N.H.) and senior Joe Snively ― the ECAC Player and Rookie of the Week, respectively ― have seven points apiece in six games. Pearson had a 2-1-3 line with the winning goal Friday against RPI.
…and the ‘Cats, too!
New Hampshire hasn’t had as much success throughout the first half as a whole, but it’s certainly finished well and has games in hand on the middle of the Hockey East pack entering the second half of the schedule.
The Wildcats swept Dartmouth as the in-state rivals played a home-and-home series for the first time in history, improving to 4-7-5 on the season and 3-1-2 over their last six with 3-2 and 4-0 wins. UNH has played in six one-goal games (and 11 when including the five ties), with Friday marking its second victory.
Freshman Angus Crookshank had a hand in three of UNH’s four Saturday goals, scoring twice and adding an assist for the first three-point game of his collegiate career. Junior Liam Blackburn also had a strong weekend with a goal and four assists, including a career-high four-point night in the home win.
Crookshank netted his first game-winning goal just 1:43 into the series finale, helping to set the course for Bedford, N.H., native sophomore Mike Robinson’s 30-save shutout.
Turnaround at Brown?
While Sacred Heart made a quick jump in the Atlantic Hockey race after earning two wins last weekend, a 1-0-1 showing against Rensselaer and Union helped Brown do the same in the ECAC. The Bears have earned seven points through nine league games, which slots them in a three-way tie for fifth place and two points behind third-place Dartmouth.
Brown closed the weekend with a 2-1 win over the Engineers after scoring three times in the second period to overcome an early two-goal deficit and tie Union on Friday.
Former Boston Junior Bruin and senior Alex Brink scored the tying goal, making him one of three different Bears to tally against the Dutchmen, while second-year defensemen Anea Ferrario had two assists for his first points of the season.
Streak snapped
Holy Cross finished the calendar year with a 2-11-2 mark, but it perfectly bookended the semester with victories in Atlantic Hockey play. The Crusaders were 2-0 winners in their Saturday series finale at Robert Morris, snapping a 13-game winless streak thanks to senior Michael Laffin’s two goals and a 26-save first collegiate shutout from freshman Erik Gordon.
It was their first win since the Oct. 12 season opener against Canisius. Fifth-year head coach David Berard’s team had played in seven consecutive games decided by two or fewer goals before the win in Pittsburgh, going 0-5-2 in that span.
Loose pucks
― UMass had its program-record winning streak snapped at nine games on Friday, but the Minutemen returned to a sold-out Mullins Center and split its weekend series against Quinnipiac with a come-from-behind, 3-1 win. Head coach Greg Carvel’s club has now held a top-five national ranking for five consecutive weeks as it currently stands at No. 2.
― Sophomore Andrew Shortridge has started six games for Quinnipiac this season and pitched three shutouts after his 32-save effort in Friday’s 4-0 win over UMass. Shortridge, who leads the nation in goals against (0.83) and save percentage (.966), joins UMass sophomore Matt Murray (10-0) and Minnesota State senior Mathias Israelsson (7-0) as the only three goaltenders in college hockey with perfect win-loss records.
― BU captain Bobo Carpenter (North Reading, Mass.) snapped a four-game streak without a goal with three in a weekend split with UMass Lowell. He tallied two in Saturday’s 5-2 win at Tsongas Center, including a shorthanded game-winner. In Friday’s loss, freshman Joel Farabee assisted on all three BU goals.
― Sophomore Vlad Dzhioshvili scored the first deciding goal of his Vermont career in Saturday’s 2-1 win at Colorado College. A two-goal stanza supported junior Stefanos Lekkas, who made 48 saves for the second time this season to earn a victory and now ranks fourth in the nation with a .936 save percentage.
― Speaking of goalies, UConn freshman Tomas Vomacka has made at least 25 saves in four of his last five appearances after stopping 29 of the 32 he faced in a one-goal loss Friday at Boston College.
