Two early goals sparked the Sacred Heart Pioneers to a 5-3 victory over the Bentley Falcons Sunday.
Pioneer Fredrik Wilberg beat Bentley’s Bill Bridge with a long slap shot at 1:31 of the first period and Martin Paquet’s wrist shot passed Bridge at 10:28, providing the Pioneers with a
lead they would not relinquish.
Bentley’s Andy Peters cut the gap to 2-1 at 18:59 of the first period with a power-play goal, but Paquet scored his second of three goals on the night three minutes into the middle period.
Joe Lovell answered for the Falcons at 5:30 of the second period, but the Pioneers once again had a response as Wilberg lit the lamp for the second time at 14:44 to give Sacred Heart a 4-2 lead at the second intermission.
Both teams remained scoreless through the third period until John DiGennaro finished off a pass from Marcus Willy on a 2 on 1 break to make it 4-3 with only 1:16 remaining.
But Paquet completed his hat trick into an empty net with 18 seconds to play to complete the scoring.
Sacred Heart’s Eddy Ferhi stopped 38 shots in goal for the Pioneers while Bridge made 29 saves in his first collegiate start.
The win evens Sacred Heart’s record in MAAC play at 3-3-3 and improves the Pioneers to 5-4-3 overall while Bentley dips to 0-11-1, 0-9-1 in the league.
