Game Notes

The Matchup: Bentley plays its final two road games of the regular season this weekend when they play a series at the RIT Tigers. Both games on Friday and Saturday night are a 7:05 start, and can be seen free of charge on http://www.rit.edu/sportszone/index.php

Bentley split at home with Canisius last weekend in a pair of 3-2 games, with the Griffs winning on Friday night and Bentley on Saturday. The Falcons enter the weekend four points out of a potential home series in the first round of the playoffs.

RIT enters the weekend T-7^th in the Atlantic Hockey standings with Army West Point. Both of those teams have 19 points and are holding onto the final two home playoff spots in the first round. The Tigers split on the road with Holy Cross last weekend, with a 4-0 loss in the first game and a 3-2 victory in the second contest.

Follow the Games: Both games can be seen for free this weekend at the following link: http://www.rit.edu/sportszone/index.php

The games will also be on AtlanticHockey.TV if you've purchased a season pass. Live stats for the weekend are also available.

Last Time Out: Three different goal scorers helped propel Bentley to a 3-2 win over Canisius at the JAR last Saturday night. Senior Matt Sieckhaus put Bentley in front 1-0 with a blast of a slap shot from the blue line 7:11 into the first period. Just 28 seconds into the 2^nd period, team captain Kyle Schmidt set up a Luke Santerno goal with a pretty drop pass for a 2-0 lead. Schmidt then made it 3-0 with a power play goal at 4:26, assisted by Tanner Jago and Drew Callin. Canisius fought back with a pair of 3^rd period goals, the second of which came with 1:07 left and its net empty, but Bentley saw out the remaining time for the win.

On Friday night, Canisius won it 3-2. Santerno scored a power play goal at 10:50 of the 2^nd period to cut their lead to 2-1. The Griffs got an early 3^rd period goal from defenseman Cameron Heath that proved to be the difference, despite Sieckhaus scoring for Bentley at the 4:29 mark.

Both Santerno and Sieckhaus had two goals on the weekend for the Falcons. Sieckhaus has three goals in the last five games, and four goals in the last seven.

Schmidt Hits 50: Kyle Schmidt's goal on Saturday was the 50^th of his career, which made him the 7^th player in program history to hit that milestone since Bentley became a Division I program in 1999. Alex Grieve '15, with 55 career goals, is 6^th on the list, while Brett Gensler '14 holds the record with 73.

Schmidt enters the weekend with 108 career points, which is 9^th most in the program Div. 1 history and three points away from passing Brett Switzer '15 for 8^th.

Fans can vote for him on the 2018 Hobey Baker Fan Ballot at the following link: https://apps.facebook.com/hobeybaker/vfh2018

This season, he is 3^rd on the team in points (19) and tied for the team lead in goals (9).

Other Notes: Santerno was named both the Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Month for January, and the Rookie of the Week this week. He's tied for the team lead in both goals (9) and points (21), to go along with 12 assists. He currently leads all Atlantic Hockey freshman in points, and nationally is averaging the 7^th most points per game among freshman (0.84). He was also Rookie of the Month for December … Tanner Jago is T-3^rd in Atlantic Hockey in points among defensemen (19) … both he and Kyle Schmidt are T-5^th in the conference in power play points (12), while Schmidt is T-2^nd in power play goals (7).

Series History: Bentley and RIT are meeting for the first time this season, and the 37^th and 38^th time all-time this weekend, with the Tigers leading the series 21-13-2. The teams have split in the regular season in each of the last three seasons; a split at the JAR in 2014-15, and splits of four games during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.

The visiting team has had a lot of success in this series in recent seasons. The home team hasn't won since Bentley did during the 2014-15 season, 2-1 at the JAR. The visiting team has won the last nine games in this series.

Last season, RIT swept at the JAR in late October by 4-1 and 6-3 scores. But Bentley responded in late January with a sweep at the Polisseni Center in Rochester by 3-2 and 6-3 scores. In the first game, Drew Callin broke a 2-2 with a goal with 11:19 left in the 3^rd period as the Falcons went on to win 3-2, while goalie Aidan Pelino made 34 saves. A hat trick in the second game by Jonathan Desbiens led Bentley to a win in the second game, while Kyle Schmidt had two goals as well. Jayson Argue made 33 saves to earn the win in that one.

Up Next: Bentley will play its last ever games at the JAR in Watertown next weekend when they host Air Force.

Tale of the Tape