WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley hockey team won its 4^th straight game on Friday night with a 4-3 victory over Mercyhurst.

The Falcons improved to 7-4 in Atlantic Hockey play and 9-7 overall.

Senior Dylan Pitera (Culver, Indiana) marked his 100^th career game by scoring and adding an assist. Freshman Danny Pearson (Vancouver, B.C.) scored two power play goals to give him four goals in the last two games.

Graduate student goalie Evan DeBrouwer (Blenheim, Ontario) extended his personal winning streak to four games with 32 saves on the night.

Bentley jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Pearson scored his first of the night at the 12:47 mark of the 1^st period. Pitera fed a pass from the left wing that Collin Rutherford (Tonawanda, N.Y.) got a touch on in the slot over to Pearson on the far side, who buried his shot past Lakers goalie Hank Johnson for the goal.

That extended Pearson's points streak to four straight games.

Mercyhurst tied it with a power play goal of their own with 28 seconds left in the first period, and just over a second left on the penalty. Defensemen Cade Townend scored for the Lakers to tie the game 1-1.

Bentley though scored the only goal of the 2^nd period, off the stick of Pitera. Grad student defensemen Matt Lombardozzi (Leominster, Mass.) brought the puck into the offensive zone and dished off to Cole Kodsi (Boca Raton, Fla.) on the left wing. Kodsi spotted Pitera, who beat Johnson with a shot from just inside the right face-off circle for his 4^th goal of the season.

The Falcons added to their lead with two goals just under five minutes apart in the 3^rd period. Pearson's 2^nd goal of the evening was scored from the right face-off dot at 2:31. Defenseman Drew Bavaro (Bradenton, Fla.) had the primary assist after hitting Pearson with a pass from the point.

Matt Gosiewski (Wilton, Conn.) then gave Bentley a 4-1 lead at 7:21 with his 6^th goal of the season. Gosiewski had an initial shot blocked but Ethan Roswell (Paradise Valley, Arizona) recovered the puck and gave it back to Gosiewski. The junior circled around to just outside the right face-off circle and beat Johnson with a laser of a shot over his stick for the goal.

Mercyhurst made it interesting late with two goals in the final 3:18, a power play goal by Townend for his second of the night. Winger Austin Heidemann then netted an extra-attacker goal with 48 seconds left.

Johnson went back to the bench after the goal for the extra-attacker but Bentley saw out the remaining time for the victory.

The Falcons will go for their second straight series sweep when these teams meet again on Saturday at 5:05 PM.