The 2020–21 Sacred Heart Pioneers men's ice hockey season was the 28th season of play for the program, the 23rd at the Division I level, and the 18th season in the Atlantic Hockey conference. The Pioneers represented Sacred Heart University and were coached by C. J. Marottolo, in his 12th season.

The start of the college hockey season was delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As a result, Sacred Heart's first scheduled game was in late-November as opposed to early-October, which was the norm.

Season As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic the entire college ice hockey season was delayed. Because the NCAA had previously announced that all winter sports athletes would retain whatever eligibility they possessed through at least the following year, none of Sacred Heart's players would lose a season of play. However, the NCAA also approved a change in its transfer regulations that would allow players to transfer and play immediately rather than having to sit out a season, as the rules previously required.

Coming off of the best season in the history of the program, Sacred Heart saw a bit of a decline. The team finished 6–10–2 but the record does not reflect the difficulties that the team faced during the season. The Pioneers were not alone in suffering through COVID-related cancellations, but Sacred Heart saw their opposition increase in difficulty as a result. Many of their cancelled games were against weaker teams and the Pioneers added a set of games with Quinnipiac, a team that was ranked throughout the season. Additionally, Sacred Heart played Army (another ranked team) six times during the season, a full third of their games. While SHU kept most of those matches close they did lose to the Black Knights 5 times during the season, which accounts for half of the team's losses. It would be difficult to come away with any conclusions about Sacred Heart's season other than the team had to weather several storms during the year.

Departures Drennen Atherton Goaltender Transferred to Norwich Vito Bavaro Forward Graduation Colin Bernard Defenseman Left program Jason Cotton Forward Graduation (Signed with Carolina Hurricanes) Jordan Kaplan Forward Transferred to Vermont Mike Lee Defenseman Graduation (Signed with Indy Fuel) Austin McIlmurray Forward Graduation (Signed with Fort Wayne Komets) Matt Tugnutt Forward Transferred to Providence

Recruiting Grant Anderson Defenseman 21 Plymouth, MN Ryan Doolin Forward 21 Hanover, MA Carson Gallagher Forward 21 Courtice, ON Cody Hoban Forward 19 Guilford, CT John Jaworski Forward 20 Grinnell, IA Andrius Kulbis-Marino Defenseman 20 Methuen, MA Emil Öhrvall Forward 22 Växjö, SWE; transfer from Michigan Adam Tisdale Forward 21 Cochrane, AB; transfer from Clarkson David Tomeo Goaltender 21 West Caldwell, NJ

Roster .

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season

!colspan=12 style=";" |

|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0" |colspan=12|Sacred Heart lost series 0–2

Scoring statistics RW 16 6 10 16 12 F 18 6 10 16 0 C 17 7 7 14 10 RW 17 8 4 12 2 F 17 4 8 12 12 C/RW 18 5 6 11 6 D 18 1 6 7 10 D 18 1 5 6 4 F 12 1 3 4 4 D 13 1 3 4 11 LW 10 1 2 3 8 F 17 1 2 3 4 D 14 0 2 2 4 C 16 0 2 2 0 F 17 0 2 2 17 C 14 1 0 1 21 D 4 0 1 1 0 RW 6 0 1 1 2 C 10 0 1 1 0 F 10 0 1 1 6 D 12 0 1 1 4 F 16 0 1 1 0 F 4 0 0 0 0 D 5 0 0 0 2 C 5 0 0 0 2 D 6 0 0 0 4 G 6 0 0 0 0 D 10 0 0 0 6 G 14 0 0 0 0 Bench - - - - - 6 Total 43 78 121 154

Goaltending statistics 14 853 4 7 2 43 383 1 .899 3.02 6 292 2 3 0 16 125 0 .887 3.29 Empty Net - 6 - - - 0 - - - - Total 18 1152 6 10 2 59 508 1 .896 3.07

Rankings

PollWeekPre123456789101112131415161718192021 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR-NR USA TodayNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR USCHO did not release a poll in week 20.

Awards and honors Marc Johnstone Atlantic Hockey First Team Braeden Tuck Atlantic Hockey Second Team

References