WALTHAM, Mass. – Junior goalie Jason Grande (West Chester, Pa) earned his first NCAA win with an 18-save effort to help lead the Bentley hockey team past Canisius 2-1 on Friday night.

Grande came into the game after posting a combined .953 save percentage in the last two games against Holy Cross and Harvard. The Pennsylvania native turned away 18 shots from the Golden Griffins to earn the win and give the Falcons an Atlantic Hockey victory.

The Falcons improved to 2-1 in AHA games this season and 4-4 overall. Canisius fell to 3-4-1 overall and 0-1 in AHA games.

Both Bentley goals came in the 1^st period, from freshman Cooper Connell (West Vancouver, B.C.) and grad student defensemen Matt Lombardozzi (Leominster, Mass.).

After the first period was scoreless for the first 16-plus minutes, Connell put Bentley ahead with his second goal of the season, with a shot that beat Canisius goalie Jacob Barczewski to the near side and over his shoulder. The assists came from grad student Brendan Hamblet (Hopkinton, Mass.) and freshman Danny Pearson (Vancouver, B.C.), who notched his first career point.

Lombardozzi then gave Bentley a 2-0 lead with a power play goal with 52 seconds left in the period. After taking a pass from Matt Gosiewski (Wilton, Conn.) from the left to the top of the point, Lombardozzi blasted in a slap shot Barczewski's glove.

The goal was Lombardozzi's first of the season.

The game then turned into a goalie duel between Grande and Barczewski. Grande made 12 saves over the final two periods and also helped force the Griffs into a 0-6 night on the power play.

Barczewski for his part kept Canisius in the game. He made 28 saves over the final two periods and the Griffs crept closer when Max Kouznetsov scored with 33 seconds left in the second period to make it a 2-1 game.

But that was the last goal Grande allowed and the Falcons went on to win 2-1.

They will go for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon at 4:05 pm.