Bentley Looks to Keep Climbing Standings as Air Force Visits
The Matchup: Bentley will look to keep its climb up the Atlantic Hockey standings going this weekend when they welcome in the Air Force Falcons to the JAR for a pair of games. Bentley has won four of its last six games, while Air Force enters the weekend in 2nd place in the conference standings.
Bentley's 5-2-1 record in January brought their Atlantic Hockey record to 8-8-4 for 20 points, which has the team tied for 6th, just three points behind 4th place Army and Mercyhurst, though Bentley has two games in-hand on the Lakers.
Air Force has likewise been playing well, with a 9-2-1 record since early December. With 28 conference points, they are two points behind league leaders Canisius.
This series will be the 2nd of the season between the two teams. They met out in Colorado back in October, which resulted in a split. Air Force won the first game 5-2, but Bentley won the 2nd game convincingly, 6-1.
Follow the Games: Both games this weekend can be seen live on AtlanticHockey.TV. Coverage both nights gets underway at 6:50. Live stats for Friday and Saturday will be available as well if you can't make it to the JAR, or watch online.
Last Time Out: Bentley earned its first series sweep of the season last weekend after they went on the road to Rochester and defeated RIT by scores of 3-2 and 6-3. In the first game, freshman goalie Aidan Pelino won his 2nd straight start with a 34 save effort, while sophomore Drew Callin provided the game-winner. He scored on the power play at 8:41 to break a 2-2 tie.
In the series finale, freshman Jonathan Desbiens' hat trick was the catalyst, and was the first hat trick by a Bentley player this season. A 3-3 game going into the 3rd period, Bentley scored three unanswered goals to secure the victory. Junior Kyle Schmidt had two of the goals, including a power play goal just 2:25 into the period put the Falcons in front for good.
Atlantic Hockey Honors: Desbiens was named Rookie of the Week on Tuesday after his four goals in the sweep of RIT. Orr was chosen as Defensive Player of the Week after he had four assists in the two games against the Tigers. That was his 2nd time for that award in four weeks. He had 11 assists in eight January games and posted a team-best +8 rating in that span.
Schmidt's Big Month: Kyle Schmidt had 13 points in eight January games, on nine goals and four assists. Those 13 points were the 2nd most by any player nationally in January. With 16 goals on the season, Schmidt is tied for the Atlantic Hockey lead, and is T-9th nationally. He was twice named AHC Player of the Week in January (Jan. 17 & Jan. 24).
Power Play Heats Up: Bentley's power play enjoyed a strong January. In eight games, the unit went 10-27 (37.0%). The Falcons scored a PP goal in seven of the eight games, and had two goals in three games; vs. Army (Jan. 6), vs. Sacred Heart (Jan. 21) and at RIT (Jan. 27). Kyle Schmidt had four of the goals and Max French had three. Drew Callin had two, and Desbiens the other.
Air Force will provide a good test this weekend. Its penalty kill of 88.8% is the 2nd best in the nation.
French on Fan Ballot for Hobey Baker: Team captain Max French is on the fan ballot for the 2017 Hobey Baker Award. Fans can vote once every 24 hours at this link: http://www.hobeybaker.com/vote
French is T-4th in Atlantic Hockey in points with 26. Over the weekend, he moved into 3rd place on Bentley's Division I career points list with 130. French also joined Bentley's 60 goal club on Jan. 21 vs. Sacred Heart, making him just 8th player in school history to reach that milestone.
Series Notes: Bentley is 5-2-1 in the last eight games against Air Force, going back to the 2013-14 season. Just two of those games were played at the JAR, a Bentley sweep during the 2014-15 season by scores of 2-1 and 4-1. Air Force leads the all-time series 24-12-6. Max French has four goals and seven assists in 10 career games against Air Force. Goalie Jayson Argue also has strong numbers against Air Force as well, with a 3-2 career record to go along with a 2.01 GAA and .935 save percentage.
Up Next: Bentley goes back on the road next weekend, when they head out to the Steel City to visit Robert Morris.