Bentley Visits Army as Playoffs Approach
The Matchup: The Bentley hockey team will visit Army this weekend in West Point, N.Y. for a two-game Atlantic Hockey series with just four contests left in the regular season. The Falcons have won five straight after defeating Sacred Heart at home 3-1 last Friday. Both games from Tate Rink are set for a 7:05 face-off and can be seen live on AtlanticHockey.TV
Bentley's five-game winning streak has shot them up the Atlantic Hockey standings and into a second-place tie with Mercyhurst. Both teams are 14-7-3 in the league for 31 points. In last Friday's win over the Pioneers, timely third period goals from seniors Steve Weinstein and Brett Switzer (his second of the night) propelled Bentley to the win. Locked in a tight 1-1 game, Weinstein's goal at 12:00 broke the tie and Switzer's tip-in goal at 16:39 padded the lead. Freshman net minder Jayson Argue made 30 stops for the win.
Army enters the weekend at 7-15-2 in Atlantic Hockey and is in ninth place with 16 points. The Black Knights earned a split at Canisius in a pair of low-scoring games last weekend. They won the series opener 2-1, but dropped the second game 3-1.
Follow 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.
Where They Stand: With four games left in the regular season, Bentley is tied for second in the AHC standings with Mercyhurst, both on 31 points. The top-five teams at the end of the regular season receive a first-round bye to the quarterfinals, and the top-four will play that series at home. Bentley holds a five-point lead, and the head-to-head tiebreaker, over sixth-place Air Force. They have a four-point lead on fifth-place RIT.
Five Straight: Bentley has won five straight, which ties the program's Division I record for longest winning streak. The 2008-09 squad won five in a row from Jan. 24, 2009-Feb. 7, 2009. The wins on the current streak have come over Mercyhurst (3-2, 4-3), Holy Cross (4-3, 5-2) and Sacred Heart (3-1).
As a result of the streak, Bentley received six votes in this week's USCHO Division I poll. Only four teams outside the top-20 received more votes; Northeastern (29), Penn State (27), Colgate (23) and St. Cloud State (22).
Climbing the Scoring Charts: Captain Alex Grieve's first period assist in Friday's win moved him into a tie for second with Dain Prewitt '09 on Bentley's Division I career scoring list with 126 points (54g, 72a). Brett Gensler '14 holds the record with 167 points.
Grieve is now tied for fifth on the program's overall scoring chart, tied with Prewitt and Sean Smith '99.
Weinstein had an assist on Friday, the 89th of his career. He's tied for third on the program's all-time assists list with Gary See '83 and head coach Ryan Soderquist. Gensler holds the record with 94.
Earlier This Season: Bentley and Army have already played twice this season. The two teams played a series at the JAR the weekend of Nov. 28. Bentley won the first game 3-2. They led 2-0 after the first period on goals by Switzer and Andrew Gladiuk, but Army fought back and knotted the game 2-2 in the third period. Gladiuk though scored the go-ahead goal at 7:40. Argue made his season debut in that game and made 23 saves for the win. Army won the next night 2-1 as goalie Parker Gahagen denied Bentley to the tune of 33 saves.
Series History: The first ever meeting between Bentley-Army took place during the 1981-82 season. They have played a total of 53 times, with the Black Knights leading 24-21-8. The Falcons though are unbeaten in their last five trips (4-0-1) to Tate Rink and are 7-2-1 in the last 10 in West Point.
Up Next: Bentley closes out the regular season next week with games at Sacred Heart and home against Holy Cross. They travel to Connecticut to take on the Pioneers next Thursday, before hosting the rival Crusaders at the JAR next Saturday.