WALTHAM, Mass. – Sacred Heart took the first game of this weekend's series with Bentley 5-1 on Friday night at Bentley Arena.

The Pioneers had a strong night on the power play as they scored on three of their six chances and that turned out to be the difference in the game.

They scored two power play goals in the first period, off the sticks of John Jaworski and Ryan Steele to take a 2-0 lead.

SHU defenseman Rourke Russell gave the visitors a 3-0 lead with a goal at 4:06 of the 2^nd period, before a power play goal by Logan Britt at 15:16 extended the lead.

Bentley's Drew Bavaro (Bradenton, Fla.) scored his team leading 7^th goal of the season at 11:35 of the 3^rd period. Grad student Michael Zuffante (Bloomingdale, Ill.) brought the puck into the offensive zone down the right wing and fed a pass across the ice to Bavaro. Bavaro then fired a shot from just inside the left face-off circle, over the glove of SHU goalie Justin Robbins.

Falcons senior goalie Fraser Kirk (Burlington, Ontario) earned his first start of the season and made 30 saves on the evening.

The defeats snaps Bentley's five-game winning streak in Atlantic Hockey play and drops their record to 8-5 in conference games and 10-9 overall.

Sacred Heart improved to 8-8-3 overall and 6-5-2 in Atlantic Hockey.

Bentley will look for the series split in the second game of the series on Saturday at 5:05 pm.