Sacred Heart looks to reload with new recruits

The Sacred Heart men’s hockey team was on track for big things when the season was abruptly canceled in mid-March, just before the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals.

The Pioneers had tied a program record with 21 wins, including historic victories over Boston University and later Yale and Quinnipiac to claim the inaugural Connecticut Ice Festival tournament championship.

And while claiming its first league championship and NCAA tournament berth were hardly a guarantee, Sacred Heart had the experience, depth and talent to make it a favorite.

Now, the task is sustaining that level of success. It won’t be easy. Senior Jason Cotton, the first player in program history to sign an NHL contract, is now in the Carolina Hurricanes system. Hamden’s Mike Lee, an offensively-gifted defenseman, and forwards Austin McIlmurray and Vito Bavaro — all seniors— were among the leading scorers.

Earlier this month, coach C.J. Marottolo learned forward Matt Tugnutt, a 30point scorer, was also leaving. Tugnutt, a junior who earned an undergraduate

degree this spring, will play at Providence next season as a graduate transfer.

Sacred Heart attempts to replenish with a recruiting class of six incoming freshman — a goalie, two defensemen and three forwards. Adam Tisdale, who spent the past two seasons at ECAC Hockey powerhouse Clarkson, arrives on campus this fall as a transfer.

“Our strength the past couple of years has been our depth,” Marottolo said. “The class coming in are all good leaders. Both defensemen are big, strong, can skate and play the puck. The forwards all play with high compete levels and add to our depth.”

Tisdale, a native of Cochrane, Alberta, had eight assists as a freshman. He scored eight goals with two assists last winter on a Clarkson team ranked in the national top 10 most of the season.

David Tomeo, a native of West Caldwell, New Jersey, could push incumbent starter Josh Benson for playing time in goal next season, though it won’t be easy. Benson it a two-year starter coming off a terrific season in which he won 20 games with five shutouts, one of them an historic 4-0 win at Boston University.

Still, Tomeo enters Sacred Heart with a winning pedigree. He won a 12U national championship for a local New Jersey team and spent time at Shattuck St. Mary’s, one of the nation’s top prep school programs,

leading the 14U and 16U programs to their first national championships. He’s been in the NAHL for the past four seasons, posting a 2.73 goals-against average and .913 save percentage at Johnstown (Pa.) last winter.

Carson Gallagher, from Courtice, Ontario, was a teammate of Tomeo in Johnstown last winter. A play-making left winger with good size at 6-foot, 185 pounds, he scored 20 goals with 24 assists.

Ryan Doolin, is a Hanover, Massachusetts native familiar with Connecticut. He played prep school hockey at Westminster and spent two seasons in the Mid-Fairfield Rangers U18 program before heading off to Junior hockey. Originally committed to Harvard, he split the 2018-19 season between Chicago and Lincoln of the USHL and was with Albemi Valley of the British Columbia Hockey League last winter, scoring 19 goals with 33 assists in 57 games.

John Jaworski, a center from Grinnell, Iowa, had two goals and nine assists for Chicago of the USHL last season. Grant Anderson, a defenseman from Plymouth, Minnesota, is coming off two strong seasons with Omaha of the USHL.

Andrius Kulbis-Marino, one of the top high school defensemen in Lowell, Massachusetts, led Lowell Catholic High to a state championship and was the Lowell Sun player of the year as a senior. He spent a season at Albany Academy and was with Tri-City of the USHL last year. Maine, UMass Lowell, Army and Holy Cross were among the other Division I programs interested.

DARTMOUTH CONSIDERING CASHMAN

Reid Cashman, an All-American defenseman at Quinnipiac, is a finalist to succeed Bob Gaudet as head coach at Dartmouth, Hearst Media Connecticut has confirmed.

Gaudet retired after a 32-year career at Brown and Dartmouth, where he’d been since 1997.

Cashman returned to Quinnipiac after a five-year professional career; an assistant on Rand Pecknold’s staff that reached the NCAA championship game in 2013 and 2016. He was hired by the Washington Capitals in the summer of 2016, where he spent two seasons as an assistant for Hershey of the AHL before being promoted to the NHL as a Capitals assistant in 2018.

Dartmouth is expected to make an announcement soon. Cashman, as of Thursday, was still a part of the process, according to sources. If Cashman is offered the job, he’d have a tough decision to make. Washington wants him back next season.

Ben Lovejoy, a Dartmouth alum and NHL veteran, is reportedly the favorite to land the position, even though his coaching experience amounts to one season as a volunteer assistant at Dartmouth last winter.