Bentley Opens Hockey Season Saturday Night at Boston Univ.
The Matchup: Bentley drops the puck on the 2022-23 hockey season on Saturday night at Agganis Arena against Boston University. The puck drops at 7:00 PM and can be streamed on ESPN+.
Saturday's game will be the first of seven straight non-conference games for the Falcons to begin the season. After Saturday's game they will take on Union on Thursday, Oct. 13. That is followed by the home opener against the University of Maine on Saturday, Oct. 15.
A trip to Ohio State to take on the Buckeyes follows on Oct. 20-21, before a home series against Lindenwood on Oct. 28-29 closes out the month.
Follow the Game: The game can be streamed on ESPN+ at the link below.
https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/id/b0ef7b98-580f-48e6-ba62-12fe96c7b3cd#bucketId=1
Live stats are available at https://goterriers.com/sidearmstats/mhockey/summary
Series History: Saturday's game will be the third all-time meeting between the Falcons and Terriers. Bentley won the first game, 4-1 on Dec. 14, 2013. The Terriers won the second game, 3-0 on Nov. 24, 2015.
History vs. Hockey East: Bentley has earned 12 wins against Hockey East schools since the 2008-09 season. Last season they defeated Boston College at home 6-2, for their second win over the Eagles. Bentley has also beaten Northeastern (4), UNH (2), UMass-Lowell, Boston University, UMass and Maine.
The Captains: Bentley will be captained this season by graduate student forward Dylan Pitera and senior defenseman Marcus Walter. Pitera was one of Bentley's leading scorers last season with 20 points, on seven goals and 13 assists, which set career highs for him in all three categories. He's the program's active leader in career games played with 119 entering the season. Walter, a defenseman, was an assistant captain last season for the Falcons. A big psychical presence on the blue line, he's consistently been among the team leaders in blocked shots in his three previous seasons.
Walter is the 5th straight defenseman to be a team captain. He joins Tanner Jago (2018-19), Brett Orr (2019-20), Charlie Marchand (2020-21) and Ethan Roswell (2021-22).
The assistant captains are senior center Joe Winkelmann and junior forward Cole Kodsi.
Top Returnees: Kodsi is Bentley's top returner in both goals (10) and points (23). Senior Matt Gosiewski is the top returner in assists (16). Sophomore defenseman Tucker Hodgson is the leading returner in blocks (30).
New Additions: Bentley has 13 newcomers to the roster, with four transfers. Two from Quinnipiac, defenseman Nick Bochen and forward Ethan Leyh and two from UMass Lowell, forward Josh Latta and defenseman Jordan Schulting.
Of the nine freshmen, four are forwards, three are defensemen and two are goalies.
Among the freshman, two came from the USHL, goalie Connor Hasley (Cedar Rapids) and defenseman Seth Bernard-Docker (Sioux Falls). Two came from the NAHL, forward Nicholas Niemo (Lone Star) and goaltender Josh Seeley (Minnesota). Five came from the BCHL, forwards Stephen Castagna (Alberni Valley), Arlo Merritt (Alberni Valley) and Ryan Upson (Langley) and defensemen Ryan Nause (Alberni Valley) and Pat Lawn (West Kelowna), who happens to hail from Waltham, Massachusetts.
Welcome Back & New Staff Additions: The hockey program welcomed back Ben Murphy as Associate Head Coach this summer. Murphy was an assistant coach at Bentley from 2009-2019, then went to St. Lawrence for three seasons. Gudge Gentzler was hired as Director of Hockey Operations and Chris Dyment joined the staff as a volunteer assistant.
Looking at the Terriers: BU was picked second in the Hockey East Preseason Poll and they are ranked 12th in the first USCHO poll of the season. Former NHL player and BU alum Jay Pandolfo is their new head coach after he took over in the summer.
Senior defenseman Domenick Fensore is the team's leading returning scorer with 31 points (5g, 26a). The leading returning goal scorer is senior Wilmer Skoog with 15. In goal, junior Drew Commesso returns after going 13-11-3 last season with a .914 save percentage.
Up Next: Bentley is off next week and will return to the ice on Oct. 13 at Union.