WALTHAM, Mass. – Ethan Leyh notched his second hat trick of the season in Bentley's 4-2 victory over Army West Point on Friday night.

Leyh scored his 9^th, 10^th and 11^th goals of the season as the Falcons won the series opener at Bentley Arena. Leyh, who had his first hat trick on Dec. 30 against Union, recorded the fourth hat trick by a Falcon this season. The other two were by A.J. Hodges and Ryan Mansfield.

Leyh scored the first goal of the game at 10:23 on power play as the Falcons took advantage of a major penalty against Army.

At the 14:12 mark Bentley cashed in on the five-minute major again as Ryan Upson scored his fifth of the season. Ryan Mansfield entered the offensive zone with speed down the right wing and maneuvered around and in between the Army defense to hand off a pass to Upson. After taking the pass Upson deked around Army goalie Evan Szary and beat him to the glove side for the goal and a 2-0 lead.

Bentley took a 3-0 lead 3:43 into the second period when Leyh scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway. Stephen Castagna helped create the goal by digging the puck out along the boards in Army's offensive zone. The puck was played out to Leyh on the blue line. He streaked past an Army defender to create the breakaway and beat Szary to the stick side for the goal.

Bentley's defense smothered Army and allowed just nine shots through two periods as they led 3-0.

Falcons goalie Connor Hasley had a shutout going for 57 minutes until Army's Nik Hong scored at 17:08 to make it a two-goal game.

Army then pulled Szary and took advantage of the extra attacker situation as Ricky Lyle scored at 18:24 to cut Bentley's lead to 3-2.

After the ensuing faceoff Szary headed to the bench again. But this time Bentley was able to seal the game when Castagna chased down a loose puck in Bentley's offensive end and shuffled the puck on net that Leyh tipped in for the hat trick with 25 seconds remaining.

Bentley, who improved to 14-15 on the season 10-11 in Atlantic Hockey, will go for the sweep on Saturday.