Bentley Faces Sacred Heart Again In Penultimate Weekend of Regular Season
The Matchup: Bentley will face Sacred Heart for the second time in four weeks in the second to last weekend of the regular season. It's a home and home series, with Bentley hosting at the JAR on Friday night before the series shifts to Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn., for Saturday's game.
The Falcons will come into the weekend in 8th place in Atlantic Hockey with 23 points (9-10-5 AHC) after a win and tie on the road against Robert Morris last weekend. The standings are very tight though, with the team just three points behind Holy Cross for 5th place, and a potential first round bye.
Sacred Heart hosted Canisius last weekend, and came away with a tie (2-2) and loss (6-5). The Pioneers are 8-13-3 in AHC games for 19 points. That has them in 9th place, four points behind Bentley coming into this series.
Follow the Games: Both games this weekend can be seen on AtlanticHockey.TV. Live stats will be available for Friday's and Saturday's game.
Where They Stand: Bentley currently holds a four point lead over SHU for the final home-ice spot in the first round of the AHC playoffs. With four games left in the regular season, the Falcons can finish anywhere from 3rd to 9th place.
Canisius (38 points) and Air Force (35) have created separation at the top. But the next six teams in the standings are separated by just five points; Army (28), Robert Morris (27), Holy Cross (26), Mercyhurst and RIT (24) and Bentley (23). RIT has played one more game than each of those teams.
Last Weekend Recap: Freshman goalie Aidan Pelino had two stellar games in net, as Bentley went to Pittsburgh and came away with a 3-0 win and 1-1 tie against Robert Morris.
In the first game, Pelino made 28 saves. Drew Callin and defenseman Chris Buchanan had goals just 1:06 apart in the 2nd period to stake Bentley to a 2-0 lead. Callin then added an empty-net goal with 1:15 left in the 3rd period to seal it.
In the second game, freshman Jake Kauppila provided the goal and Pelino made 32 more saves. Kauppila's goal at 6:34 of the 2nd period gave Bentley a 1-0 lead. Pelino's bid for a 2nd straight shutout came to an end on Brady Ferguson's goal at 5:24 of the 3rd period, which broke a five-plus period scoreless streak.
Goalie of the Week: Pelino's efforts against RMU earned him Atlantic Hockey Goalie of the Week honors. He's the 6th Bentley player this season to be honored by Atlantic Hockey. He joined Alexey Solovyev (Defensive Player of the Week), Ryner Gorowsky (Rookie of the Week, twice), Brett Orr (Defensive Player of the Week, twice), Kyle Schmidt (Player of the Week, twice) and Jonathan Desbiens (Rookie of the Week).
Earlier This Season: These two teams played just four weeks ago. Bentley won the first game 3-2 in Bridgeport. Pelino was in net for that one, and made 37 saves to earn his first career win. Kyle Schmidt had two goals, including a power play goal at 7:18 of the 3rd period to give Bentley a 3-1 lead, and was the eventual game-winning goal.
The next night at the JAR, SHU held on for a 5-4 win. The Pioneers led 5-2 after a goal by Stephen Hladin at 7:05 of the 3rd period. A goal by Jonathan Desbiens at 12:33 cut the deficit to 5-3, and Schmidt scored with seven seconds left to provide the final 5-4 margin.
Series Notes: Sacred Heart has a slight edge in the all-time series, 30-28-6. The last 10 games in the series played at the JAR have been even at 4-4-2, while the last 10 played at SHU, Bentley has a 5-4-1 edge.
Up Next: Bentley will close out the regular season next weekend when they host Holy Cross for a series at the JAR.