Falcons Hosts RIT at Bentley Arena Starting Friday Night
The Matchup: Coming off a 3-1 win over Northeastern in the final game of 2022, Bentley is back at home this weekend for a series against RIT for its first games of 2023. Friday's game begins at 7:05 PM and Saturday's game is a 4:05 PM start.
This series will be Bentley's first Atlantic Hockey games since Dec. 1 and 2 against AIC. The Tigers come into this weekend in first place in Atlantic Hockey with 30 points (10-2-0) and hold a two-point lead over Sacred Heart, despite having played two fewer games. They were swept by Penn State last weekend but received votes in this week's USCHO poll.
This will be the first of two series between these teams in the next six weeks. They will play in Rochester on Feb. 17 and 18.
Follow the Games: Both games this weekend can be seen on FloHockey.TV. A subscription is required.
Live stats can be found at https://bentleyfalcons.com/sports/mice/2022-23/schedule
Tickets can be purchased at https://www.etix.com/ticket/v/12892?cobrand=BentleyHockey
Last Time Out: Bentley earned its second victory over a Hockey East team this season with a 3-1 win against Northeastern on Dec. 30.
The Falcons took a 1-0 lead just 1:34 into the contest with a power play goal by Matt Gosiewski. They took a 2-0 lead just under five minutes later on a goal by freshman Nicholas Niemo. The Huskies found the back of the net at the 11:24 mark of the opening period, but that was their only goal of the night.
Freshman defenseman Ryan Nause scored his first career goal in the third period to make it 3-1.
Junior goaltender Nicholas Grabko had a stellar night with 34 saves against 35 shots faced. He made 16 saves in the 3rd frame to close out the win and helped the Falcons penalty kill go 4-4.
Goalie of the Week: Grabko was named the Atlantic Hockey Goalie of the Week on Tuesday, for the third time in his career. He earned the award twice last season. The 34 saves and .971 save percentage he posted were just short of his season highs. He had 37 saves and a .974 save percentage in a win over Sacred Heart on Nov. 25.
Grabko is the second Falcon this season to be named AHA Goalie of the Week. Freshman Connor Hasley was tabbed on Oct. 17 after the win over Maine.
Century Mark: Senior forward Matt Gosiewski played in his 100th career game on Dec. 30 against Northeastern and he marked the occasion with one goal and one assist. The next Falcon set to hit 100 career games is senior Lucas Vanroboys, who is three games away.
Roster Addition: Matt Thomson was recently added to the roster as a graduate transfer from Northeastern. A left shot forward, Thomson played in 49 games for Northeastern over the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. He helped them win the Beanpot in both of those seasons and the Hockey East championship in 2019.
From Reading, Mass., he played juniors in the USHL with Youngstown and Cedar Rapids during the 2017-18 season.
Thomson will wear number 2 for the Falcons.
Series History: RIT leads the all-time series 24-16-4 over Bentley. These teams played just twice last season, at Bentley Arena, and the Tigers took five out of six points with a 2-1 win and 3-3 tie that they earned an extra point from in a shootout.
Bentley owns the longest unbeaten streak in the series at six games (5-0-1). That occurred over three seasons, from 2016-19.
Where They Rank: Lucas Vanroboys currently leads Atlantic Hockey in defensive zone faceoff winning percentage. Vanroboys has won 64.2 percent of his defensive zone faceoffs (70-109) so far this season.
Sophomore Harrison Scott is second in the AHA in faceoff winning percentage at .596. He is 140-235 so far.
Scott leads the team with six goals, which is tied for 11th in Atlantic Hockey.
Defenseman Nick Bochen leads the team in both assists, with eight, and points, with 12.
Freshman Pat Lawn leads the team with 23 blocked shots, in just 13 games.
Up Next: Bentley is on the road next weekend for a series at Niagara. They return home on Jan. 20 and 21 for a series against Canisius.