I was at Sacred Heart the day the sports world began to grind to a halt. I spent the day following the sports world’s developing news. I was at the women’s lacrosse game against Manhattan when news broke that the NCAA Basketball Tournament would be played without fans. I was in the academic building when someone (mistakenly at the time) announced the NCAA Tournament was canceled. I was in North watching Syracuse and North Carolina play in the ACC Tournament when the Rudy Gobert news broke on the bottom line.
Driving home that night, I remember listening to the Rangers play out in Colorado thinking “Man when am I going to be able to watch them again?” Because even though everything in the sports world that I loved was falling apart around me, I knew at some point I would see that Ranger team play again. I just didn’t know when. That wasn’t the case for the 2019-20 Sacred Heart Men’s Hockey team. Arguably, the best team in program history. 21-10-3, which was a program record for wins in a season. 18-8-2 in Atlantic Hockey, again, a program record for single-season conference wins. 132 goals scored, a program record. Jason Cotton and Mike Lee were All-Americans. Cotton scoring 20 goals and added 17 assists, while Lee just missed out on 30 assists (he had 28 plus 5 goals). They shut out BU 4-0 at Agganis Arena (an average BU team but a shutout at BU is a shutout at BU, especially a BU team with Trevor Zegras). SHU was even ranked for the first time in program history at #20. Then there was CT Ice. The long-awaited Connecticut version of the Beanpot, and the high point of the 2020 season. The Pios stomped Yale 6-2 in the semifinals. Then the next day, behind a huge second period with goals from Ryan Steele, Todd Goehring, and Jason Cotton, The Pioneers knocked off perennial national power Quinnipiac 4-1 to take the program's first championship of any kind. The smallest of the big four schools was on top of the state…and it wasn’t a fluke. Head Coach CJ Marottolo said, "This win and championship will be at the top of the greatest accomplishments of my career." All-American Jason Cotton added “Just from where this program was and where it is now, it's unbelievable the growth. Not only the guys in the locker room but the senior classes before us. And before them, they came in and they left a jersey in a better place than where it was. And for us, when we walk through those doors, that's what we think about." (Quotes from SHU Athletics). To top it off, the day before CT Ice began, Sacred Heart announced plans to build a brand new $70 million on-campus arena specifically for hockey. Not a bad weekend to be a Pioneer. Sacred Heart finished the season on a 7-2-1 run, including a 5-3 over AHA Regular Season Champion #20 AIC in the regular season finale. The Pios Hockey program was on an incredible high, looking forward to the next step…and they didn’t even get to play a single postseason game…. I remember going to Linda’s after moving my girlfriend out when SHU sent the students home. They had printed flyers all over the tables marketing the Atlantic Quarterfinal series that was supposed to start on March 12th…the day every major sporting event in North America was canceled or postponed. I couldn’t help but feel gutted for everyone involved with the program, especially the seniors. Whose careers ended so suddenly and without warning. (That goes for every sports senior and all the other seniors in the class of 2020 who didn’t get a fair end to their college careers). All the work put in to finally get the program to the doorstep of the ultimate goal, and with a press release, it’s gone. Deep down I understood why. Nobody knew what the hell was going on, and looking back now it was the right decision by everyone involved with college sports. That doesn’t make it any less crushing. This team had the best shot at securing the school's first Atlantic Hockey Championship and first birth in the NCAA Tournament since the 2010 team reached the final, falling to RIT 6-1. The difference being that 2010 got its shot in the postseason. The 2020 team didn’t. Who knows what might of happened if that tournament got played. Playoff hockey is so incredibly random. SHU was 2-0 against RMU in 2019-20, winning both games by a combined 10-2. I feel comfortable saying the Pios would’ve been able to handle the Colonials, but maybe they get picked off by RIT or Air Force in the Semifinal, which was single elimination. Maybe regular season champ AIC, who SHU went 2-2 against, takes down Sacred Heart in the Final at the HarborCenter. But…maybe not. Maybe Sacred Heart finally reaches the mountain top. Maybe the Pioneers win the Atlantic for the first time and skate in the NCAA Tournament against North Dakota, Minnesota State, or Cornell (SHU was 23rd in the Pairwise when the season was stopped). We will never know for sure. The Pioneers haven’t finished above .500 since 2019-20. Going 6-10-2 in the wonky COVID-filled 2020-21 season, 15-18-2 in 2021-22 (where they did split with #12 BU and were 1:19 away from knocking off #2 Quinnipiac and heading back to the CT Ice Final), 17-17-3 in 2022-23, and 14-19-3 last year. SHU also hasn’t won an AHA Tournament Game/Series still since 2018, when they knocked out RIT in the First Round. (Although SHU did advance in the 2021 AHA Tournament due to Holy Cross having to withdraw due to COVID). The Pios haven’t been back to the CT Ice Championship either. Finishing third in 2022 and 2023…and fourth at the XL Center in 2024. What might have happened in the 2020 Atlantic Hockey Tournament is the biggest what-if in SHU Hockey History…and that is something I don’t expect to ever change.
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Freshman Forward Bria Holm
Former School: Maine Hometown: Moorhead, Minnesota Birthday: October 27th, 2004 Height: 5’4’’ Shoots: L Junior Hockey Career
Sophomore Forward Alyssa Antonakis
Former School: Northeastern Hometown: Elko New Market, Minnesota Birthday: July 31st, 2004 Height: 5’6’’ Shoots: L Junior Hockey Career
Sophomore Forward Sami Bowlby
Former School: Quinnipiac Hometown: Savage, Minnesota Birthday: April 3rd, 2004 Height: 5’7’’ Shoots: L Junior Hockey Career
Sophomore Defensemen John Driscoll
Former School: Army Hometown: Littleton, Colorado Birthday: Height: 6’4’’ Weight: 205 LBS Shoots: L Junior Hockey Career
Freshman Forward Jake Hewitt
Former School: Army Hometown: Fitchburg, Massachusetts Birthday: July 5th, 2002 Height: 5’10’’ Weight: 180 LBS Shoots: R Junior Hockey Career
Junior Forward Reid Pabich
Former School: Maine Hometown: Verona, Wisconsin Birthday: October 5th, 2001 Height: 5’11’’ Weight: 180 LBS Shoots: R Junior Hockey Career
Junior Forward Félix Trudeau
Former School: Maine Hometown: Terrebonne, Quebec Birthday: September 24th, 2002 Height: 6’2’’ Weight: 190 LBS Shoots: L Junior Hockey Career
Senior Forward Max Dorrington
Former School: St. Lawrence Hometown: North Reading, Massachusetts Birthday: August 30th, 2001 Height: 6’3’’ Weight: 220 LBS Shoots: R Junior Hockey Career
Senior Defensemen Gabe Blanchard
Former School: UMass Lowell Hometown: East Aurora, New York Birthday: September 15th, 2000 Height: 6’1’’ Weight: 199 LBS Shoots: L Junior Hockey Career
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