Game Notes

The Matchup: The Bentley hockey team is at home for the second straight weekend, this time welcoming in the Mercyhurst Lakers for an Atlantic Hockey series. Both games on Friday and Saturday night begin at 7:05 and can be seen live on AtlanticHockey.TV

The Falcons are off to a 2-2 start in AHA play after splitting their first two series of the year against Sacred Heart and Niagara. Last weekend against the Purple Eagles, Bentley put together a complete effort in a 6-0 win on Friday, but suffered a 3-2 overtime setback in the series finale.

Mercyhurst has likewise only played four AHA games thus far and is 3-1 after sweeping Army at home last weekend. They split with Air Force in its other AHA series on opening weekend. The Lakers notched a signature win on Nov. 1 when they defeated then No. 4 Colgate 2-1.

Watch the Games: Newly rebranded AtlanticHockey.TV will carry every Bentley AHA game this season. Season ($150), monthly ($35) and single game ($10) passes are available. Live stats will be available on Bentleyfalcons.com and in-game updates will be on Twitter @BentleyFalcons.

The Doc Is In: Senior goalie Blake Dougherty continued his strong start to the season last weekend. He recorded his second shutout of the year and made 33 saves in Friday's 6-0 victory. The shutout was Bentley's first at home since a 5-0 win over Sacred Heart in game three of the 2012 AHA First Round series. On Saturday he made 28 saves. For the weekend he totaled a 1.49 goals against average and a .953 save percentage, stopping 61 of 64 shots faced.

Those numbers earned him Atlantic Hockey Goalie of the Week honors for the second time already this year. He previously earned the award on Oct. 28 after helping Bentley blank RPI 4-0 on Oct. 25.

Dougherty's .947 save percentage on the season is currently sixth best in the country.

Power Play Rolls On: Bentley's power play is on quite a tear. The unit went 4-5 in the two games last weekend, 2-3 on Friday and 2-2 on Saturday. Over the last six games it is 11-20 and on the season is converting at a 37.8% clip (14-37), good for tops in the country by more than five percentage points over the University of Minnesota.

Max French's four power play goals has him tied with three others for the national lead. Defenseman Matt Maher is tied for the AHA lead in power play points with six (3g, 3a).

Combined with a penalty kill unit that is at 86.0% (37-43), Bentley has the top combined special teams percentage in the country at 63.7% (51-80).

Hat Trick: French's hat trick in Friday's win was the first by a Bentley player since captain Alex Grieve did it against RIT last season on Jan. 20, one of his two on the season. The West Kelowna, B.C. native has now lit the lamp eight times this season, tops in Atlantic Hockey and tied for third nationally.

Grieve Moves Up: With three assists over the weekend, Grieve now has 68 for his career and has moved into 10^th place in the program's overall history. With 120 career points he's tied for ninth overall, and is seven points away from breaking into the top-five.

Balanced Offense: Through nine games, Bentley already has had 15 different players score the team's 31 goals. 19 different players have already recorded a point.

Series History: Mercyhurst leads the all-time series 28-11-7. But since the start of the 2008-09 season they hold just a 7-6-3 advantage. The last time these two teams played in Watertown, during the 2012-13 season, it resulted in a split with Mercyhurst winning the first game in OT 4-3 and Bentley the second game 5-1. The teams will play a return series in Erie the weekend of Jan. 30.

The first meetings between the two schools came during the 1998-99 season with Bentley winning two games 6-5, both in overtime, and tying a third game 5-5.

Up Next: The stretch of home games is broken up when the Falcons visit Harvard for a third straight season next Friday night. That's their only game of the weekend. Following that is the first game of the year against chief rival Holy Cross on Tuesday, Nov. 25 at the Hart Center in Worcester.