Caught the end of Sacred Heart’s 4-0 loss today to Niagara. And apologized to C.J. Marottolo because I keep catching him on the wrong days. The Pioneers fell to 3-7-2; they came into the day 56th of 60 Division I teams in offense (from College Hockey Stats, and that 1.91 figure will drop to 1.75.
“We’ve been struggling to score consistently this year,” Marottolo said. “We’ve tried some different line combinations, tried some different things to try to get a spark. … When we’ve done that, we’ve been inconsistent.”
They beat Niagara, as we linked last night, 4-3 on Friday, did well on the power play, Marottolo said, scoring three times. They had some good looks today, including a couple of two-on-ones in the second period, but Jackson Teichroeb made 37 saves for the Purple Eagles.
The Pios have been shut out or scored one goal seven times in 12 games, scoring two or more five times. Six of their 21 goals came in one game. Eight came in two others.
“We’ve got to keep working and make our own breaks,” Marottolo said.
Asked how some of the kids are coming along, and he’s happy with that, starting with three freshmen that he mentioned. “Last night Austin McIlmurray had the game-winner. Zach Tsekos, a freshman, had a goal last night. Vito Bavaro had a big night, 10 shots on goal. We saw those guys take a jump last night.”