Game Notes

The Matchup: Bentley will play its first Atlantic Hockey game in more than five weeks on Tuesday night when they host Sacred Heart at the JAR. Puck drop is set for 7:05 and can be seen on AtlanticHockey.TV

The Falcons are 4-6-3 in Atlantic Hockey games for 11 points. Their 13 conference games played are second fewest in the conference, but they will start to make up ground with six games in 12 days. This past weekend, Bentley tied with No. 9 ranked Northeastern 3-3 at the JAR on Friday night, which extended the team's unbeaten streak to seven games. The Huskies took the second game of the series 6-1 at Matthews Arena on Friday night.

Sacred Heart is 2-8-4 in Atlantic Hockey action. They've tied the last two games; 3-3 with Army on Saturday in a game played at Nassau Coliseum, and 5-5 with Holy Cross on Dec. 30.

Follow the Game: Tuesday's game can be seen on AtlanticHockey.TV, with coverage starting at 6:45.

Live stats will be available as well.

Bentley Arena to Open February 16: Just before the winter break, on December 19, Bentley University President Gloria Larson announced that Bentley Arena will host its first game for the Bentley hockey team on February 16, against Army West Point. The Falcons will play three regular season games in their new home; Feb. 16-17 vs. Army, and Feb. 24 against AIC. The Falcons will play their final games at the JAR in Watertown the weekend of Feb. 9-10 vs. Air Force.

Ticket information for games at Bentley Arena for students and the general public will be announced soon.

Click here for a video tour of the Arena during construction.

Last Time Out: The Falcons played a home-and-home series with Northeastern over the weekend, and came away with a 3-3 tie and a 6-1 defeat. In Friday's game, Bentley battled back from a 2-1 deficit after the 2^nd period to earn the tie. Senior Kyle Schmidt scored a power play goal at 5:27 of the 3^rd to even the score. Northeastern then went ahead on a goal by Dylan Sikura at 11:42, but just 23 seconds later, sophomore Jonathan Desbiens scored the tying goal off a rebound from a Luke Santerno shot. Goalie Aidan Pelino made 33 saves.

The next night, the Huskies received two goals from Nolan Stevens and Brandow Hawkins in the 6-1 win.

Wrapping up the Streak: Bentley's seven game unbeaten streak at 6-0-1 was its longest since the 2013-14 season, when they went nine games unbeaten (7-0-2). That is the longest unbeaten streak since Bentley became a Division I program for the 1999-00 season. They won six straight games as part of this streak, a new program Div. I record, which included wins over Hockey East's UMass-Lowell and ECAC teams Brown and Dartmouth.

Aidan Pelino went 6-0-1 during the streak, with a 1.82 GAA and .942 save percentage. Matt Riggleman and Luke Santerno led the team in scoring with 10 points, each on three goals and seven assists. Defenseman Connor Brassard led with five goals scored.

On special teams, Bentley went 10-30 on the power play (33.3%) and 28-30 on the penalty kill (93.3%).

Power Play Rolls On: Bentley has now scored a PP goal in five straight games after notching one in each game against Northeastern. The team's 25.6 percentage (22-86) on the season is tops in Atlantic Hockey, and 5^th best nationally.

Schmidt Moves Up: Kyle Schmidt notched two points in Friday's game for the 104^th and 105^th points of his career, which moved him past Steve Weinstein '15 and into 9^th place for most points in the program's Division I history. Next on the list is Brett Switzer '15, with 110 points.

With two more goals, he'll become the 7^th Bentley player to hit 50 career goals in Division I.

Among active NCAA players, he is T-11^th in career points and T-5^th in goals.

Familiar Foes: Bentley and Sacred Heart have played each other 16 times in the last three seasons alone. They played seven times last season, and have met in the first round of each of the two postseasons, with Bentley winning both in three games. Last season's game three was decided by a memorable double overtime goal by sophomore Ryner Gorowsky.

Bentley is 9-6-1 over the last 16, and went 4-3 in last season's series. Kyle Schmidt has nine goals and eight assists in 16 career games against the Pioneers. SHU has a slim lead in the all-time series, 32-31-6.

Up Next: The Falcons visit Army West Point this weekend for the first of two series this season. The second series, the weekend of Feb. 16-17, will the first games at Bentley Arena.

Tale of the Tape