Bentley Travels to No. 16 Ohio State for Games Thursday and Friday
The Matchup: Coming off of Saturday's win over Maine in the home opener, Bentley is on the road next to take on No. 16 ranked Ohio State on Thursday and Friday nights. Both games begin at 7:00 pm from Value City Arena in Columbus.
Follow the Games: Both games of the series can be seen on Big Ten Plus. https://www.bigtenplus.com/en-int/page/home
Fans can subscribe to a "school pass", Ohio State in this case, for $9.99 for one month to watch the games.
Live stats for all games can be found at https://bentleyfalcons.com/sports/mice/2022-23/schedule
Last Time Out: Bentley defeated Maine 5-1 on Saturday night in its home opener at Bentley Arena. The Black Bears scored first at 5:51 of the 1st period but Bentley's Harrison Scott tied the game at 10:18 with the first of his two goals.
Bentley then turned it up in the 2nd period and outscored Maine 3-0. Josh Latta, a transfer from UMass-Lowell, got it started at 3:54 with his first goal as a Falcon. Bentley then scored twice less than two minutes apart later in the period. Scott scored again at 14:51, followed by freshman Stephen Castagna's first NCAA goal at 16:20.
Freshman Nicholas Niemo finished the scoring at 17:14 of the 3rd with an empty goal, his first NCAA tally.
In goal, freshman Connor Hasley made his first start and earned his first NCAA win with a 33 save effort. He made 15 saves in the 3rd frame.
Hasley Named Goalie of the Week: Hasley performance on Saturday earned him Goalie of the Week honors from Atlantic Hockey. Earlier in the week he also saw 29 minutes of action against Union and stopped eight of nine shots faced. For the two games, he posted a combined .953 save percentage and 1.35 GAA.
On the season, he has a .957 save percentage and 1.15 GAA.
Series History: This series will mark the fifth and sixth all-time meetings between Bentley and Ohio State. The teams played a series last season in Waltham that was a split. Bentley won the first game 2-1 behind 39 saves from goalie Nicholas Grabko. Bentley scored just 1:35 into the game, then took a 2-0 lead on a goal by Cooper Connell just 28 seconds into the second period. That goal came in Connell's first NCAA game.
The Buckeyes then won the second game of the series 7-1.
The first series between these teams took place during the 2008-09 season in Columbus. That was a sweep by OSU by scores of 10-1 and 3-2 in OT.
The only other Big Ten team Bentley has played before is Michigan, for two games in 2011-12 and one game in 2012-13.
Up Next: The Falcons will be back at home next weekend to take on Lindenwood University for the first ever games between the two teams. The game on Friday, Oct. 28 is at 7:05 PM and on Saturday, Oct. 29 the game starts at 4:05 PM.