Bentley Gets Back at it With RIT Road Series
The Matchup: Bentley will travel up to Rochester, N.Y., for the first time since 2013 this weekend for a series with Atlantic Hockey rival RIT. Both games Friday and Saturday night from the Polisseni Center begin at 7:05 pm and can be seen live on EverSport.
The Falcons come into the weekend with a 1-2-1 AHC record at this early point of the season. They played just once last week, a 5-1 home defeat to No. 14 Merrimack. That snapped the team's four game unbeaten streak (3-0-1), which saw a sweep of Northeastern and a tie and win over Army West Point, with a 6-2 victory coming at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
RIT, the defending AHC Tournament champs, are 3-0-1 in league play thus far. The Tigers swept AIC on the road the weekend of Oct. 30, and took a win (4-0) and tie (2-2) out of a trip to Army West Point last weekend.
Both teams are scoring at a similar clip early in the season. Bentley is average 2.71 goals per game (4th in AHC) while RIT is at 2.67 (5th in AHC). The Tigers though are allowing more than a half goal per game more than Bentley, 3.11 to 2.57.
Follow the Games: This weekend's game can be seen live on EverSport. The cost for a day pass is $6.99, while the cost for a season pass is $99. Visit this page to sign up.
In addition, live stats can be found on Bentleyfalcons.com, and live game updates are on Twitter @BentleyFalcons.
Last Time Out: Bentley dropped a 5-1 decision to Hockey East's Merrimack on Wednesday at the JAR. A 1-1 game after the 2nd period, the Warriors erupted for four goals in the first 6:27 of the 3rd period to put the game away. Max French had Bentley's goal, coming at 19:27 of the 2nd period and assisted by Andrew Gladiuk and Kyle Schmidt.
Happy Returns: French missed the first four games of the season, but has been on fire in his three games back with four goals and three assists. After going for three goals and three assists in the Army series, he was named the Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week, the 3rd Star of the Week by NCAA.com and also had the No. 2 Play of the Week from the NCAA.
Balance at the Top: French is among five players that are tied for the team lead with 7 points. The other four are Gladiuk, Schmidt and defensemen Matt Blomquist and Tanner Jago. Gladiuk and French each lead the team with 4 goals, while Jago has a team high 7 assists.
High Scoring Tandem: Blomquist and Jago are two of the highest scoring blueliners in the country. Each is tied for 5th nationally in points per game among defensemen (1.00). Cornell is the only other team to have two defensemen in the top-10.
Jago is tied for 11th nationally in ppg among rookies.
Captain is Streaking: Gladiuk is on a five game scoring streak where he has amassed all 7 of his points this season (4g, 3a) after being held scoreless for the first two games of the season vs. Mercyhurst.
Last Season vs. RIT: The Falcons and Tigers split a series at the JAR last season on the weekend of Jan. 23. Bentley won the 1st game 2-1 in a game that featured 17 combined penalties. Ryan McMurphy and Matt Sieckhaus were the goal scorers for Bentley, while Gabe Antoni made 32 saves for the victory in goal. The Tigers rebounded with a 5-2 decision the next night as they scored three unanswered in the 3rd period to break a 2-2 tie.
Series History: RIT leads the all-time series 19-7-2. The Tigers' win at the JAR on Jan. 24 of last season snapped a three game winning streak in the series for the Falcons, who swept a series at the JAR during the 2013-14 season by scores of 8-2 and 4-1. Bentley hasn't played in Rochester since the 2012-13 season, which resulted in a series split (W 3-0, L 4-0) at RIT's old rink Ritter Arena. The first ever matchup between these two programs took place during the 1979-80 season, a 7-6 Bentley win.
Gladiuk leads all active Bentley players in points against the Tigers with 6 in 6 games, coming on 2 goals and 4 assists.
Up Next: Bentley is in action just once next weekend. They welcome in Rensselaer to the JAR on Friday, Nov. 20. The Engineers are the last of Bentley's three non-conference home games this season. The Falcons swept a series from RPI on the road last season by scores of 5-2 and 4-0.