Game Notes

The Matchup: The regular season is in the books and now Bentley will host a first round series in the Atlantic Hockey playoffs against Canisius in a best of three matchup. Game times are 7:05 on Friday and Saturday nights, and if necessary a game three on Sunday would be at 4:05 pm.

The Falcons wrapped up the regular season with a sweep of Holy Cross, and went 7-3 in the final 10 games of the season. They finished in a three-way tie for 6^th place in the standings, along with Air Force and Robert Morris, with 41 points and just one point out of the top five. Due to tiebreakers, Bentley is the No. 8 seed.

Canisius finished in 9^th place in the standings with 36 points. They are coming off a sweep of Mercyhurst on the road last weekend, by scores of 3-2 and 6-0.

Follow the Games: The entire Atlantic Hockey postseason can be watched on FloHockey.TV, which requires a subscription.

Live stats to this weekend's games can be found at https://www.bentleyfalcons.com/sports/mice/2019-20/schedule

Tickets to this weekend's games can be purchased here

Last Time Out: Bentley swept a home and home series from Holy Cross last weekend. The Falcons won the first game 3-2 at home, with all three goals scored on the power play. Junior Brendan Hamblet scored twice and Michael Zuffante had the other goal. Defenseman Matt Lombardozzi and Ryner Gorowsky had the assists on all three goals.

The next night Bentley erupted in a 6-2 win. Hamblet scored twice more, and senior Jonathan Desbiens had a career high four points, with one goal and three assists. Senior defenseman Connor Brassard had three assists.

Senior goalie Aidan Pelino was strong in net as he earned the win in both games. He posted a combined .915 save percentage and a 2.00 goals against average.

Series Notes: This will be the 5^th postseason meeting all-time between Bentley and Canisius. They met two years in a row, in the 2013 first round and the 2014 quarterfinals. They also met in the 2009 quarterfinals, a 2-1 Bentley series win, and the 2005 quarterfinals which was a single game Bentley won 4-2.

These two teams played just one series in the regular season this year, at Bentley Arena on Jan. 10-11. Both games ended in ties, 3-3 and 4-4. Canisius though earned an extra point in both games, with a shootout win in the first game and a 3x3 overtime win in the second game.

Those games snapped a five game winning streak Bentley had in the series coming into this season. Canisius leads the all-time series 32-29-8.

Junior Luke Santerno is Bentley's leading scorer against Canisius. He has 12 points (5g, 7a) in 10 career games. Ryner Gorowsky has seven points (2g, 5a) in 10 games. Jakov Novak has six points (4g, 2a) in six games.

Things to Know: Jonathan Desbiens notched his 50^th career assist on Saturday at Holy Cross. With 48 career goals, he is two points away from 100 for his career, and two goals away from 50. In Bentley's Division I history, only seven other players have reached 50 goals and 11 players 100 points.

Only 7 players in the program's Division I history have at least 50 career goals and 50 career assists. Brett Gensler, Andrew Gladiuk, Max French, Alex Grieve, Dain Prewitt, Kyle Schmidt and Jeff Gumaer.

Aidan Pelino notched his 36^th and 37^th career wins over the weekend. That moved him into sole possession of 2^nd place on the program's all-time wins list.

Senior defenseman Connor Brassard recorded his 50^th career assist on Saturday. He ended the regular season as the 9^th leading scorer among defensemen in Atlantic Hockey with 18 points.

Junior Matt Lombardozzi was named the AHA Defenseman of the Week on Tuesday, after he had three assists in Friday's win over Holy Cross.

Matt Gosiewski ended the regular season leading the AHA in goals among freshmen with 10, and 4^th in points with 23.

Jakov Novak ended the regular season tied 4^th in goals with 16 and tied 5^th in points with 30.

Juniors Michael Zuffante and Brendan Hamblet both played in their 100^th career games last Saturday. Bentley now has nine players on the roster who have played 100+ games, led by Jonathan Desbiens and Brett Orr, each at 137 games.

AHA Playoffs: The other first round series this weekend pit No. 6 Air Force against No. 11 Mercyhurst and No. 7 Robert Morris against No. 1 0 Holy Cross. The top four seeds are AIC, Sacred Heart, RIT and Army, who will play the No. 5 seed Niagara in the quarterfinals.