Bentley Takes on Air Force on Friday and Saturday in Colorado
The Matchup: Bentley will play its first games at Air Force since November, 2019 this weekend with a two game series at Cadet Ice Arena. Friday's game gets underway at 9:05 pm eastern time and Saturday's game gets underway at 7:05 pm eastern. Both games can be seen on FloHockey.TV
Bentley comes into the weekend with a 2-2 Atlantic Hockey record. They have split their first two Atlantic Hockey series of the season, against Holy Cross on Oct. 21 & 23 and against Canisius last weekend. Bentley sports a 4-5 record overall, with non-conference wins over Ohio State and Boston College.
Air Force is 0-1-1 in Atlantic Hockey games so far. They opened conference play last weekend at Niagara and dropped the first game 4-3 and tied the second game 3-3. Air Force is 2-5-1 overall with non-conference wins over Michigan State and Colorado College.
Follow the Games: Both games this weekend can be viewed on FloHockey.TV. A subscription is required.
Live stats can be found at https://bentleyfalcons.com/sports/mice/2021-22/schedule
Last Time Out: Bentley split with Canisius last weekend at home. The Falcons won the first game 2-1 as junior goalie Jason Grande earned his first career win with an 18-save effort. Both goals came in the first period, off the sticks of freshman Cooper Connell and grad student defenseman Matt Lombardozzi.
Connell's goal was his second of the season, and Lombardozzi's first.
Canisius though came back and took the second game 6-3. The Griffs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and Bentley could not come back. Lombardozzi netted his second goal of the weekend on the power play in the second period. Defenseman Drew Bavaro scored a short-handed goal and senior Dylan Pitera also scored.
Leading the Way: Drew Bavaro currently leads all defensemen nationally with five goals scored on the season. All five of his goals have come in the last six games, which began with the win over BC on Oct. 16. He was named the AHA Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 25.
On the team, grad student Phil Knies leads the way with 8 points on 2 goals and 6 assists.
Series History: This weekend's games will be the 58th and 59th all-time meeting between Bentley and Air Force. The first meeting took place in the 1998-99 season, an 8-4 Bentley win.
The teams played three times last season with Bentley winning two of three. They met twice in the regular season. Bentley won the first game 6-3 on Jan. 31. Brendan Walkom, Matt Gosiewski, Drew Bavaro and Brendan Hamblet were among the goal scorers, while Nicholas Grabko earned the win in goal.
Air Force won the second game in overtime, 4-3. Hamblet and Gosiewski were among the goal scorers for Bentley. The teams then played in the first round of the AHA playoffs and Bentley won it 7-3. Walkom scored two goals, and Gosiewski, Cole Kodsi and Joe Winkelmann also found the back of the net.
Bentley will be looking for its first win at Cadet Ice Arena this weekend since Oct. 22, 2016.
Up Next: Bentley is back on the road next week with a pair of games against American International. The series takes place on Friday the 18th (7:05 pm) and Saturday the 19th (1:05) at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield.