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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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
Senior Forward Matt Guerra
Former School: Holy Cross Hometown: Orlando, Florida Birthday: May 21st, 1999 Height: 5’8’’ Weight: 165 LBS Shoots: R Junior Hockey Career
Senior Forward Tyler Ghirardosi
Former School: Holy Cross Hometown: Montrose, British Columbia Birthday: October 1st, 1999 Height: 6’3’’ Weight: 185 LBS Shoots: L Junior Hockey Career
SHU Men vs. Niagara 3/8/24 | 2024 Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals Game 1 | 6-3 L
-Second straight year these two have met in the AHA Quarters. Niagara won last year in three games -Mark Cheremeta was in the lineup for the first time since December 9th at Princeton. He slotted in on the top line with Jaworski and Tuck -Early stoppage for a review on a hit 3:26 in. Nothing came of it -Braeden Tuck got the scoring started on the Power Play with 6:51 to go in the first period. TJ Walsh and John Jaworski got the assists -Kevin Lombardi gave the Pioneers a 2-0 lead on a weird angled shot just four minutes into the second. TJ Walsh got his second assist on the goal. Marcus Joughin also grabbed an assist -Garrett Sundquist took a penalty with 13:47 to go in the frame. Hunter Sansbury made an unreal play after the puck got through Robbins to clear it off the line and save a goal. He blocked a shot right after as well -Niagara would get on the board 6:35 to go in the second on a Tyler Wallace goal. The second period would end 2-1 SHU. -Then the third started. Carter Randklev scored 1:21 into the period to tie the game. Then, he scored again 30 seconds later to give Niagara a 3-2 lead. 13 seconds after that goal. Jonathan Ziskie scored to make it 4-2 Purple Eagles. Three goals in 44 seconds for Niagara. Absolutely back breaking -Braeden Tuck scored his second of the day off a wild sequence. John Jaworski came out of the box and found himself on a breakaway, but was stuffed. Tuck scored on a rebound, but it was called no goal, but then reviewed and counted. Jaworski got an assist -1:09 after the Tuck goal, Niagara scored on a Power Play. They would add an empty netter with 50 seconds to play to make the final 6-3 -SOG finished 35-34 Pios -2,354 was the announced attendance. Not terrible with the students on spring break SHU Men vs. Niagara 3/9/24 | 2024 Atlantic Hockey Quarterfinals Game 2 | 5-1 L -Pios needed to win to force a Game 3 -Daniel Ebrahim would open the scoring just 19 seconds in. It was an odd angled shot that somehow managed to find the back of the net. This would be the only goal SHU would manage -Niagara would tie the game 3:11 into the second period, then score two goals in less than a minute (one on the Power Play) to take a 3-1 lead -Jake Bongo had a really good chance right in front at the end of the third that was shut down -Jack Richard would score, again on the Power Play, 4:30 into the third to make it 4-1. That's when it felt like it finally was out of reach -Niagara would add an empty netter with 3:18 to go to make the final 5-1 -The Sacred Heart Power Play would go 0/3 on the evening. Niagara went 2/4 -2,639 announced attendance. Again, not terrible without the students -This is the second straight year Sacred Heart was eliminated in the quarterfinal round by Niagara -SHU has still not reached the Atlantic Hockey Semifinal round since 2010, and has not won a playoff series/round since 2018 (They did advance in 2021, but that was because Holy Cross withdrew due to COVID issues) -The Pios finished the year on an 0-5-1 skid after sweeping AIC and winning game one at Air Force -It is a disappointing end of the year. SHU was in first place heading into CT Ice (RIT had games in hand to be fair), but still slid down to third and fell as the higher seed again, being outscored 11-4 in the two games. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated as a fan -Season Leaders
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