Bentley Headed to Frozen Fenway Thursday Night to Face Army West Point
The Matchup: For the second time in four seasons, the Bentley University hockey team will play at Frozen Fenway. On Thursday night at 7:30 pm, the Falcons will take to the ice at the famous ballpark to take on Army West Point in an Atlantic Hockey game.
The game can be seen live on AtlanticHockey.TV, and tickets are still available. A radio broadcast by Bloomberg Radio will also be available online, or on 1200 AM in Boston.
The series will conclude one night later, back at the JAR on Friday night at 7:05 pm. These two teams played four times last season, with the series being split 1-1-2. Bentley won at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn 6-2, tied twice 2-2, once at the JAR and once in West Point, and was defeated in the other game on the road.
Follow the Games: Both games, including Thursday's game at Fenway, can be seen live on AtlanticHockey.TV. A radio broadcast from Bloomberg Radio will be available online, as well as on 1200 AM in Boston. Live stats will be available additionally.
For Friday's game at the JAR, tickets can be purchased here and live stats will be available as well.
Last Time at Fenway: Bentley partook in the first ever Atlantic Hockey game at Fenway Park, a 3-2 win over rival Holy Cross on Dec. 28, 2013. A hat trick by Brett Gensler was the offense, while goaltender Branden Komm made 29 saves.
With the score tied 2-2 in the 3rd period, Gensler's 3rd of the night, on the power play at 9:07, was the winning goal.
Looking at the Teams: Bentley (4-10-4, 3-6-3 AHC) enters the weekend after a non-conference series against Hockey East's Vermont. The Falcons split their last Atlantic Hockey series with Robert Morris (W 4-3, L 4-1), which came before the break. The team will enter this series with Army in 9th place in the standings.
The Falcons are led offensively by senior captain Max French, who leads the team in points (18) and assists (11). He is tied for the team lead in goals with assistant captain Kyle Schmidt, both with 7. Freshman Ryner Gorowsky is 3rd on the squad in points with 10.
Army (10-6-2, 9-4 AHC) tops the Atlantic Hockey standings with 18 points, which is one better than Air Force. In their first action of the 2nd half, in games over the weekend, the Black Knights tied Dartmouth 2-2 and defeated Colgate 4-1 at the Ledyard Bank Classic.
The Black Knights are paced offensively by a pair of freshmen; Dominic Franco who leads the team in assists (9) and points (14), while Zach Evancho leads the way in goals (8), along with junior Connor Andrle (8). Senior goalie Parker Gahagen leads the AHC in goals against average (1.66).
Series History: Army leads the all-time series 25-22-12, but Bentley has controlled the series since the 2007-08 season. Since then, Bentley is 14-8-6 in the series against their opponents this weekend.
Max French has put up big numbers against the Black Knights. In just 7 career games, he has six goals and five assists. He had 1 goal and 3 assists in last year's win at the Barclays Center. Kyle Schmidt had two goals in that game as well.
In 7 career starts, goalie Jayson Argue is 2-2-3 with a strong .931 save percentage and 2.19 GAA.
Up Next: Bentley will head out to western New York next weekend to take on the Niagara Purple Eagles for a series beginning on Friday, Jan. 13, and concluding on the 14th with a 3:05 pm game.