Ice Hockey falls short to Pioneers in Jason Pagni Memorial Game

AVON, Connecticut - Although the final score of 5-4 in favor of Sacred Heart University was not what the American International College ice hockey team hoped for, the real end result of the Jason Pagni Memorial Game was a packed Jennings-Fairchild Arena at the Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Connecticut and a significant boost to the Connecticut Hockey Foundation, marking a victory for the sport of hockey and in particular the families that the Foundation assists.

AIC's record now stands at 8-6-0 overall and 5-2-0-0-0-0 in the AHA.

Both teams saw defensemen score in the first as Andrius Kulbis-Marino fired home from the point at 8:56, but a breakout play started by Logan Jenuwine ended with Brian Kramer deflecting a net-front pass from Brett Rylance into the cage at 12:18 for his seventh of the season.

AIC started strong in the second as Kramer sent the puck from behind the net to Nico Somerville, who passed diagonally left-to-right through the neutral zone to hit the onrushing Alfred Lindberg. Lindberg crossed the line to the attacking end and wired the puck, hitting the twine for his second of the year just 0:58 in.

However, the rest of the period belong to the Pioneers, who struck twice on the power play. Mikey Adamson's point shot off a turnover at 8:57 tied the game, and Kevin Lombardi deflected a Hunter Sansbury mid-point wrister home at 17:28 to put the Pioneers in the lead.

The Yellow Jackets pushed in the third, but it looked as if no scoring would take place in the final stanza, until the game exploded over the last six minutes. Mark Cheremeta finished a two-on-one off the rush at 14:16, but Oscar Geschwind jammed home a rebound of a John Lundy bid that Lindberg had gotten netfront for his first of the year at 14:40. On the ensuing faceoff, however, Daniel Ebrahim snapped a shot in, just 11 seconds after AIC cut the deficit to one, making it three goals in 35 seconds.

AIC did not quit, and pulled Nils Wallstrom for a sixth attacker. Lundy drove the puck to the net, and Julius Janhonen jammed it, eventually finding Alexander Malinowski at the goalmouth to pop home his fifth of the year at 17:11. However, AIC did not manage the fifth, tying goal, even despite a late scramble that the officials looked at to see if the Pioneers had illegally covered the puck in their crease, and also in spite of several blocks with the net empty from point-blank range, including a pair by Brett Callahan and one by Jordan Biro that kept AIC's hopes alive to the final horn.

The intense, high-speed game thrilled the sellout crowd, as did a series of auction items. There were tickets to other hockey games and autographed pucks, but the big prizes were signed jerseys donated by Avon Old Farms alums Kevin Shattenkirk, Trevor Zegras, and Jonathan Quick. In all, the result was thousands of dollars raised for the Connecticut Hockey Foundation, with the exact total still to be announced.

AIC and Sacred Heart will head to Springfield for the weekend finale at the MassMutual Center on Saturday, December 2 at 7:05 p.m.