Bentley Set to Open Season Saturday at Northeastern
The Matchup: Bentley will get the 2021-22 hockey season started on Saturday night when they visit the Northeastern Huskies at Matthews Arena in downtown Boston.
Saturday's game will be the first of four non-conference tilts for Bentley before they begin Atlantic Hockey play on Oct. 21 at Holy Cross.
The game can be watched live on https://www.collegesportslive.com/schedule/14/ which is free to view.
There will also be a radio broadcast of the game at https://985thesportshub.com/
Series Notes: Saturday's game will be the 12th all-time meeting between Bentley and Northeastern. The first matchup was back in the 2010-11 season, which Bentley won at Matthews, 2-1. They have also played in the 2012-13, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2019-20 seasons.
Northeastern leads the series 5-4-2 and won the last matchup, 4-2 on Jan. 6, 2020.
On the Falcons' roster, 11 players suited up in that game.
Captains: The Falcons are captained this season by senior defenseman Ethan Roswell. Roswell is the 4th straight defenseman to be a team captain for the Falcons. He joins Charlie Marchand (2020-21), Brett Orr (co-captain, 2019-20) and Tanner Jago (co-captain, 2018-19).
The assistant captains are senior forward Brendan Walkom and junior defenseman Marcus Walter.
Preseason Honors: Sophomore defenseman Drew Bavaro was named to the Preseason All-Atlantic Hockey team. Last season as a freshman, Bavaro was named to the AHA All-Rookie team after he posted 12 points, 2 goals and 10 assists, in 16 games.
New Faces: The Falcons welcomed in 10 new student-athletes to the program this season. Five of them are transfers. Four are graduate students, forwards Kohei Sato (New Hampshire), Collin Rutherford (Dartmouth), Phil Knies (Miami) and goalie Evan DeBrouwer (Arizona State). Forward Eric Linell (UConn) is a junior.
The five freshmen are forwards Danny Pearson (Coquitlam, BCHL), Cooper Connell (Grand Prairie, AJHL), Harrison Scott (Amarillo, NAHL) and defensemen Tanner Main (Welland, Ontario) and Tucker Hodgson (Fargo, USHL).
Familiarity: Sato played against Northeastern nine times in his time with UNH.
Record vs. Hockey East: Bentley did not play any non-conference games last season, but they have a strong record historically against Hockey East opponents. The program has 11 wins all-time over Hockey East teams, all since the 2008-09 season. The wins have come against seven different schools; Northeastern (4), UNH (2), Boston College, UMass-Lowell, Boston University, UMass and Maine.
The most recent was against UNH, 3-2 in overtime, at home during the 2019-20 season.
Up Next: After Saturday's game, the Falcons will welcome in the Ohio State Buckeyes to Bentley Arena for the home opening games. Those are on Friday, Oct. 8 at 7:05 PM and Saturday, Oct. 9 at 6:05 PM