Bentley Goes on the Road to Face Mercyhurst on Friday-Saturday
The Matchup: Bentley heads out to Erie, Pennsylvania this weekend to take on the Mercyhurst Lakers. It will be the second series of the season between the two teams, after they played at Bentley Arena on Nov. 1-2. Friday's game is at 7:05 and Saturday is a 4:05 start.
Follow the Games: The games will be broadcast live on FloHockey.TV, which requires a subscription.
Fans can also follow live stats at the following link: https://hurstathletics.com/sidearmstats/mhockey/summary
Last Time Out: The Falcons dropped a pair of tough games to AIC last weekend by scores of 4-1 and 2-1, despite outshooting the Yellow Jackets in each game, 31-24 in the first game and 33-22 in the second. In the second game on Saturday, Bentley nearly scored the tying goal with 9.6 seconds left on a redirect by Will Garin off a shot by Connor Brassard, but the puck hit the post. Freshman Matt Gosiewski scored his 8th goal of the season in the 2nd period for the Falcons.
On Friday, Bentley scored first off the stick of defenseman Matt Lombardozzi to take a 1-0 lead 7:23 into the 2nd period. AIC however scored three times in a span of less than two minutes to pull ahead.
Earlier This Season: Bentley and Mercyhurst split a series at Bentley Arena on Nov. 1-2. The Lakers won the first game 4-3 in overtime. The Bentley goal scores in that game were Ryner Gorowsky, Joe Winkelmann and Luke Santerno.
Bentley though bounced back with a resounding 6-3 victory the next night. They led 3-0 after the first period, and 4-0 at one point of the 2nd period. Four of Bentley's six goals that night came on the power play, from four different players (Garin, Novak, Desbiens & Brassard).
Novak on Fan Ballot for Hobey Baker: Sophomore Jakov Novak is on the fan ballot for the 2020 Hobey Baker Award, which is given each year to the most outstanding player in NCAA men's hockey.
Fans can vote through March 8 at the following link: www.hobeybaker.com/vote
So far this season he has 14 goals and 9 assists for 23 points. The 14 goals is 2nd most in Atlantic Hockey and T-11th most nationally. His 23 points is 4th most in the AHA.
Desbiens, Pelino Named Senior CLASS Award Candidates: Seniors Jonathan Desbiens and Aidan Pelino were named candidates for the Senior CLASS Award yesterday. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as a NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
Desbiens and Pelino are two of just 20 candidates in Division I men's hockey for the award. Last season, Tanner Jago was named one of the five finalists for the award.
Things to Know: Senior goalie Aidan Pelino made 20 saves on Saturday and now has 2,224 in his career. The 20 saves moved him past Jason Argue '18 for 3rd place for the most saves in program history. The top two spots are occupied by Branden Komm '14 with 3,356 and Simon St. Pierre '05 with 3,256.
Pelino currently ranks T-3rd in program history with St. Pierre for wins with 33. Komm leads the way with 47 wins. Pelino also has the 3rd best career goals against average in the program, at 2.71
Matt Gosiewski has 8 goals and 9 assists on the season for 17 points. The Bentley record for goals in a season by a freshman is held by both Erik Peterson and Jeff Gumear with 16, who did it in 07-08 and 05-06, respectively. Alex Grieve holds the Bentley record for points by a freshman with 34, in the 2011-12 season.
The Falcons will be making their first trip out to Mercyhurst since the 2015-16, when the teams split a series. The last six games in the series have been hosted by Bentley.
Among current players, senior Jonathan Desbiens has 7 career points against Mercyhurst in eight games, on 1 goal and 6 assists. Senior Ryner Gorowsky has 2 goals and 2 assists in seven games. Junior Luke Santerno has three goals in six games.
Up Next: The Falcons return to Bentley Arena next weekend for the first of two straight weekends at home. They host Niagara next weekend on Jan. 31-Feb. 1. That is followed by home games the following weekend against Army West Point (Feb. 7) and Arizona State (Feb. 8).