Falcons Continue Bentley Arena Home Stand with AIC Series
The Matchup: The Bentley hockey team will continue its home stand this weekend when they host the AIC Yellow Jackets on Friday at 7:05 pm and Saturday at 4:05 pm.
The Falcons are playing their second weekend in a row at Bentley Arena and play three of the next four weekends on home-ice. The team earned two points in last weekend's series vs. Canisius with a pair of ties.
AIC is making its second ever visit to Bentley Arena. They played in just the third ever game held at the Arena, which was on Feb. 24, 2018. The Yellow Jackets were last in action on Jan. 9 in a 5-0 defeat to Providence. The last time they were in Atlantic Hockey action, they split at Air Force on Jan. 3-4.
Follow the Games: Tickets are available for this weekend at the following link: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/8144321/bentley-vsaic-waltham-the-bentley-arena
If you can't attend the games, they will be broadcast on FloHockey.TV (subscription required) and live stats will be available here: https://www.bentleyfalcons.com/sports/mice/2019-20/boxscores/20200117_x38c.xml
Last Time Out: Bentley played to a pair of ties against Canisius last weekend, 3-3 and 4-4, but the Griffs earned an extra point each night.
In the Friday night game, Bentley received goals from Jakov Novak, Luke Santerno and Brendan Hamblet. But Canisius rallied to tie to force overtime. Neither team scored in the first OT or the 3x3 OT to force the first ever shootout at Bentley Arena, which Canisius won in the second round.
On Saturday, the Falcons exploded for four goals in the 2nd period. Santerno and Novak each scored their second goals of the weekend, and Will Garin and Matt Gosiewski also scored. Canisius though rallied again to force overtime, and earned the extra point with a goal in the 3x3 OT period.
Things to Know: Hamblet's goal on Friday was scored shorthanded. That was his 3rd SH goal of the season, and Bentley's 6th as a team. Both of those numbers lead the nation.
Novak has a goal in four straight games, and five in that span. He scored two against Sacred Heart in a 3-2 win on Dec. 29, and he scored one each against Northeastern (Jan. 6) and one in each game last weekend.
With 14 goals on the season, the Ottawa Senators draft pick is tied for the AHA lead in goals and he is T-2nd in points (23). Nationally he is tied for the 4th most goals scored.
Novak and Santerno each have four game point streaks going. Novak is at 5-1-6 and Santerno is at 2-5-7 during the streaks. Novak's five game point streak from Nov. 1-Nov. 15 is the longest by a Bentley player this season. He had a 3-5-8 line in those five games.
Freshman Matt Gosiewski had one goal and two assists last weekend, and on the season he is up to 7 goals and 8 assists for 15 points. The 15 points has him ranked 2nd in the AHA among rookies.
Bentley and AIC played twice last season, which came early in the season in October. AIC won the first game 5-4 in OT, and the second game was a 4-4 tie.
The Falcons lead the all-time series 30-23-14. Bentley is 6-3-1 in the last 10 games it has hosted in the series. The first ever meeting in the series was in the 1980-81 season, a 5-4 Bentley win.
Up Next: Bentley goes on the road next weekend to take on Mercyhurst in Erie, Pennslyvania. It will the second series of the season between the two teams, after they split at Bentley on Nov. 1-2. The Falcons return home on Jan. 31-Feb. 1 to take on Niagara.