Game Notes

The Matchup: Bentley will host the Canisius Golden Griffins this weekend for a two game Atlantic Hockey series at Bentley Arena. Friday's game begins at 7:05 pm and Saturday is a 4:05 pm puck drop. Both games can be seen on FloHockey.TV.

This will be first games between the two teams since March, 2020 in the first round of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs. The Falcons won that series two games to zero. They won game one 6-1 and clinched the series with a 5-3 victory in game two. The teams did not play last season due to Atlantic Hockey's pod schedule.

Bentley is 1-1 in AHA games so far after a split with Holy Cross two weeks ago. This will be first AHA games of the season for Canisius.

Follow the Games: Both games this weekend can be viewed on FloHockey.TV. A subscription is required.

Live stats can be found at https://bentleyfalcons.com/sports/mice/2021-22/schedule

Tickets for both games are still available and can be purchased at https://www.etix.com/ticket/v/12892/the-bentley-arena

And if you are planning to attend in person, please note Bentley's Spectator Policy https://bentleyfalcons.com/information/Spectators_Policy

Last Time Out: Bentley took on No. 15 ranked Harvard last Saturday on the road in Cambridge and fell 7-3. The Bentley goals came from Drew Bavaro, Phil Knies and Kohei Sato.

The last time Bentley was in Atlantic Hockey action, they split a home and home series with Holy Cross. Bentley won on the road, 4-2 on Oct. 21 behind four different goal scorers and 24 saves by goalie Nicholas Grabko. Bentley though dropped the return game at home, 3-2 on Oct. 23.

Canisius has played all non-conference games so far. They sport a 3-3-1 record and have wins over Penn State, Rensselaer and Ferris State and a tie against Clarkson.

Last weekend the Griffs hosted Ferris State and won the first game 4-3 before they dropped the second game 4-2. Four different players had the goals and goaltender Jacob Barczewski made 25 saves.

Team Notes: Sophomore defenseman Drew Bavaro has scored a goal in four straight games. The streak began with a goal in the 6-2 win over Boston College on Oct. 16. Bavaro also scored the game-winning goal in the 4-2 road win over Holy Cross on Oct. 21. He was named the AHA Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 25.

Bavaro leads the Falcons with four goals at this point in the season.

Grad student forward Phil Knies has a four-game scoring streak going. He has seven points, two goals and five assists, during the streak. He has notched two points in three straight games. He leads the team with 8 points. Knies transferred to Bentley from Miami University and played in 126 games over four seasons.

Fellow grad student Kohei Sato scored his first goal in a Bentley uniform at Harvard. He has four points in the last four games. Sato transferred to Bentley from UNH after playing in 104 games with the Wildcats over four seasons.

Junior goaltender Jason Grande has been sharp in his last two outings. In 78 minutes of combined action against Holy Cross (Oct. 23) and Harvard (Oct. 30) he has a .953 save percentage. He made 18 saves and didn't allow a goal in 38 minutes against Holy Cross. Against a high-scoring Harvard team last weekend, he made 23 saves against 25 shots faced over 40 minutes of action.

Series History: The all-time series between these two teams cannot be much closer. Canisius has a slight edge at 32-31-8.

The recent history though has been all Bentley. They are unbeaten in the last nine games with a 7-0-2 record. They won five games in a row from Jan. 27, 2018 through the 2018-19 season. That included a sweep of all four meetings in that 2018-19 season.

The first two meetings of the 2019-20 season, played at Bentley Arena in January, 2020 were both ties with scores of 3-3 and 4-4, though Canisius did win the first game in a shootout and the second game in 3x3 OT. The Falcons then swept the playoff series that March.

Up Next: Bentley will head out to Colorado next weekend to take on Air Force. The series gets underway on Friday, Nov. 12 at 9:05 PM and concludes on Nov. 13 with a 7:05 PM puck drop.