The Matchup: After opening the 2014-15 season on Saturday, the Bentley hockey team now gets Atlantic Hockey play underway this weekend with a home-and-home series against Sacred Heart. Friday's game takes place at the Milford Ice Pavilion in Milford, Conn., while Saturday's contest is the home-opener at Ryan Arena.

The Falcons hung tough on Saturday in the opener against No. 13 Quinnipiac, but ultimately fell 5-3. Sophomore forward Max French, who had two goals and one assist, netted his second of the night with 2:40 left to make it a 4-3 game. However, Quinnipiac's Sam Anas scored an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left to seal it. Junior Andrew Gladiuk scored Bentley's other goal in the second period, and defenseman Steve Weinstein also had a potential go-ahead goal in the second period overturned after a review. Quinnipiac instead scored seconds later to take a 3-2 lead, instead of Bentley going ahead 3-2.

Sacred Heart opened last weekend with two games at Army. They dropped the first game 2-1, but rebounded with a 5-1 victory in the second game. Senior forward Ben Lake led the offense with two goals in the win. Junior goalie Alex Vazzano started both games.

Watch on AtlanticHockey.TV: Newly rebranded AtlanticHockey.TV will carry every Bentley AHA game this season. Season, monthly and single game passes are available. Video for every non-conference game, the series vs Penn State and Rensselaer and a single game at Harvard, will be available as well.

Home Openers: The Falcons are 7-2-1 in their last 10 home-openers at Ryan Arena. They had won seven of the last eight straight before dropping last season's home-opener to AIC 8-7 on Nov. 8, 2013. Bentley has opened at home against Sacred Heart twice in recent years; 2010 (W, 6-2) and 2012 (W, 7-1).

Debuts: Six newcomers for Bentley were in the lineup for Saturday's game at Quinnipiac. Freshman forwards Kyle Schmidt, Matt Sieckhaus, Ryan McMurphy and Andrew McDonald, freshman defenseman Chris Buchanan and junior transfer Billy Eiserman all made their debuts.

Doubling Up: French was among the top-15 freshmen goal scores in the nation last season with 11, but had only one game with two goals. His two-goal game came in the season-opener against Nebraska-Omaha, a feat he repeated in this season's opener.

Picking Up Where He Left Off: Weinstein notched two assists in Saturday's game, picking up where he left off from last season when he set a Bentley single-season record with 37. Weinstein, who finished 2013-14 with the 5^th most assists of any player in Division I, entered this season with the fourth most career assists (72) among active players. He had 11 games last season with multiple assists out of 37 played.

Series History: This weekend will mark the 54^th and 55^th all-time meetings between Bentley and Sacred Heart. After the weekend, the Pioneers will have replaced Holy Cross as the program Bentley has most often faced. SHU leads the all-time series 26-22-5 and is 5-3-2 in the last 10 meetings. The first ever meeting came during the 1993-94 season.

Up Next: Bentley steps away from Atlantic Hockey play for the next two weekends. They head to Troy, N.Y. next weekend for a two-game set at Rensselaer. The two teams last played early in the 2010-11 season. The weekend of Oct. 30, the Falcons play a series at Penn State of the Big Ten in what will be the first ever games between the two programs.