The words “don’t give up’’
will resonate louder in the college hockey world following
Sacred Heart’s remarkable comeback victory over Mercyhurst.
Trailing 4-0 with less than five minutes to
play in Saturday’s Atlantic Hockey clash, Sacred Heart
rallied for four goals and won the game, 5-4 in overtime,
to complete a weekend sweep.
Atlantic
Hockey Notebook
Senior
Pierre-Luc O'Brien sparked Sacred Heart's thrilling
rally against Mercyhurst Saturday with three goals
in the final 4:03 of the third period.
“We just kept finding a way to do it,’’
said Sacred Heart coach Shaun Hannah. “The guys went
down 4-0, and we hadn’t played poorly, we hadn’t
converted on some of the opportunities we had. Mercyhurst
did a nice job of converting on our missed plays. We kept
telling the guys, ‘Just get that first one.’’’
Senior Pierre-Luc O’Brien proved why
he is one of the most dangerous players in the league with
three goals in the final moments. O’Brien notched
a power play goal with 4:03 remaining. After Eric Giosa
scored at 18:04 with another power play just ended, O’Brien
struck 26 seconds later on another power play. Down one,
the Pioneers pulled goalie Jason Smith and O’Brien
scored the equalizer with 13 seconds left in the period.
“He was tremendous,’’ Hannah
said of O’Brien. “His focus and how he approached
the last four minutes of the game was unbelievable.’’
Alexandre Parent produced the game-winner
at 3:44 of overtime, setting off a wild celebration.
“The guys were thrilled and just excited
to have accomplished what they did,’’ Hannah
said. “I don’t know what the history is or if
there are any others like it but I can tell you one thing,
it’s not very often in one’s hockey career that
you can experience something like that as a player or a
coach.’’
Hannah said his team responded well to constant
reminders on the bench that the game was not over and to
take matters one shift at a time.
“It’s one of the things that we
talk about that it’s never as bad as it seems,’’
Hannah said. “You could look at that situation two
ways: it’s a very bad situation or you can keep your
focus and keep doing what you have to do. I was very proud
of my team with how they approached that situation and stuck
to it. We didn’t fold the tents.’’
Hannah said his team savored the moment on
Sunday and got back to work on
Monday. “We had the game on Tuesday night with AIC
and we had to move on
quickly.’’ There was no letdown as the Pioneers
beat American International,
5-2.
Getting back to work was not easy given the
emotional high. Hannah said he
got away from his regular routine and stayed away from the
rink and his office – instead, he traveled to a junior
hockey game. However, he did manage to watch some video
replays of the Mercyhurst miracle. “It happened so
quickly … I watched it on video a couple times and
tried to make sure I didn’t miss anything,’’
Hannah said.
SEEN AND HEARD IN ATLANTIC HOCKEY
Cool Hand Pierre-Luc: The
most glaring statistic over the first month of the season
was the absence of Sacred Heart’s Pierre-Luc O’Brien.
Through the first six games O’Brien managed just one
goal and one assist.
Over the past three games, O’Brien has
exploded onto the scoring charts. He had two goals and three
assists in Sacred Heart’s 6-4 win over Mercyhurst
in the series opener. He notched three goals in the final
4:03 to help the Pioneers to a 5-4 overtime win the next
night. On Tuesday, he tacked on a goal and two assists in
Sacred Heart’s 5-2 win at American International.
“He is our guy,’’ said Sacred
Heart coach Shaun Hannah. “He’s our captain
for a reason. He comes to play every night and he continually
does things that we expect our team to do in terms of work
ethic and what we ask them to do. He has turned into a great
leader.’’
Hannah said he was not worried by O’Brien’s
slow start.
“It was just going to be a matter of
time for Pierre-Luc,’’ Hannah said. “It
was just real good to see him break out this weekend.’
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG
Great Weekend Getaway
Holy Cross at Sacred Heart (Fri.)
Sacred Heart at Holy Cross (Sat.)
Now that Sacred Heart has drawn first blood by sweeping
Mercyhurst, can defending champion Holy Cross slow
down the Pioneers in another matchup of preseason
leaders? Sacred Heart's Pierre-Luc O’Brien has
posted 11 points in his last three games. Holy Cross
has seven power play goals in its last two outings.
Stick
Salute
Sacred
Heart showed great heart and determination
by climbing out of a 4-0 hole with under five minutes
to play and beating Mercyhurst 5-4 in overtime. Incredible,
just incredible.
Bench
Minor
Losing a 4-0
lead in the final five minutes is not reason to dump
on
Mercyhurst – it’s picking up four penalties
which led to four of the five goals which Sacred Heart
scored. The Lakers have to know they are one of the
better five-on-five teams in the league.
• Still (almost) perfect: Army swept
a home-and-home with American International, improving to
5-0-1 and staying atop Atlantic Hockey for another week.
Army’s lone tie came against Sacred Heart, which sits
two
points back. Josh Kassel won two more starts in net, stopping
51 of 54 shots, improving to 10th in the nation with a .929
save percentage. Army is eighth in the nation with 2.12
goals allowed in NCAA games.
• Mercy-less: Mercyhurst has lost three
consecutive league games for the first
time since Nov.-Dec. 2003.
• A little tense: The weekend series
between Bentley and Connecticut featured 49 penalties and
woeful power plays. Bentley was whistled 30 times for 76
minutes, and UConn went 3-for-26 on the power play. Connecticut
was penalized 19 times for 38 minutes, and Bentley tallied
just once on 16 power plays.
• Manning-up: Canisius and Holy Cross
combined for 13 power play goals on 32
chances – four goals were scored at even strength
and one with an empty net.
• Crusading: A five-assist night by
Holy Cross’ James Sixsmith highlighted a nine-point
effort by his line, which included Sean Nappo (2 goals,
1 assist) and Dale Reinhardt (1 assist) in Saturday’s
6-3 win over Canisius. Sixsmith (3 goals, 15 assists) vaulted
to the national lead in points per game (2.14) and assists
per contest (1.71).
• Griffin notes: The 1-8 start by Canisius
is the worst since the Golden Griffins opened the 2003-04
season with a 1-6-3 mark. … The four leading scorers
for Cansisius are all freshmen. … Freshman blue-liner
Carl Hudson is tied for second in the nation with five power
play goals. … Josh Heidinger is tied for fourth in
the nation among freshmen with 1.33 points per game.
• It’s been a while: Air Force
blanked RIT, 3-0, to open a series between Atlantic Hockey’s
newest members. The shutout was the first by RIT’s
offense in 22 games since a 2-0 loss at Union on Dec. 2,
2005.
• Lastly … : American International
has one power play goal on 46 chances, a 2.2 percentage
ranking last among 59 Division I teams. … The Yellow
Jackets followed a 1-8-1 start last season with an 0-8 opening
this season. AIC was 0-9-1 to start the 2003-04 season.
A variety of sources were utilized in
the compilation of this report
