MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – The Holy Cross men's ice hockey team defeated Robert Morris, 3-1, in its Atlantic Hockey opener on Friday night at Clearview Arena.
 
The two teams posted an identical 10 shots on goal, while the Crusaders (4-0-0, 1-0-0 AHA) held the edge in blocked shots, 10-6. The Crusaders killed off two man-up opportunities by the Colonials (1-2-1, 0-1-1 AHA), while Robert Morris held off Holy Cross in their one chance.
 
In his return to Clearview Arena, senior Matt Guerra broke the scoreless tie just under two minutes into the second period. Freshmen Brody Gagno and Jack Stockfish forced a RMU turnover in their offensive zone before Stockfish skated the puck down the ice. Tying up three defenders, Stockfish made a quick pass to a wide-open Guerra who sent the one-time shot past the RMU netminder. Defensively, the Crusaders fought off 7:37 minutes' worth of Colonials' power play time in the middle period.
 
The Colonials tied the game up at one apiece with four minutes remaining in the third period. With 2:36 remaining in the period, the Colonials received a five-minute major and game misconduct for contact to the head, giving the Crusaders the man-up opportunity to close out the game.
 
With 39.3 seconds remaining, Guerra netted his second goal of the game to take the lead. Forcing a bad clear by the Colonials, sophomore Mack Oliphant received the puck at the right side of the blue line, sending the puck to senior Alec Cicero at the left faceoff dot. Cicero sent the puck across the ice to Guerra at the right faceoff dot, where he held the puck until the RMU defender committed to the shot block. Once the defender dropped, Guerra sent a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net, right above the glove of the goaltender.
 
After the Colonials pulled their goalie with 25 seconds to go in regulation to make it a five-on-five situation, junior Liam McLinksey and Stockfish forced a neutral zone faceoff. Finding the loose puck, Stockfish sent the puck just wide of the empty net where senior Jack Ricketts picked up the ricochet off the boards, shooting the puck into the empty net with 14 seconds left on the clock to ice the game at 3-1.

Senior netminder Jason Grande recorded 32 saves in the win, while Robert Morris' Chad Veltri also posted 32 in the loss.
 
The two teams will face off again tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 21, at 5 p.m.
 
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