Bentley Hosts Holy Cross Beginning Friday Night
The Matchup: Four weekends are left in the regular season and Bentley begins February with a home series against Holy Cross. The series gets underway on Friday at 7:05 PM and concludes with Saturday's game at 4:05 PM.
These games will be the only two of the season between the Falcons and Crusaders, who will be playing for the 80th and 81st times in their history this weekend.
Bentley is coming off a split at Mercyhurst last weekend. Holy Cross split at home against RIT.
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 for both games this weekend can be purchased at https://www.etix.com/ticket/v/12892?cobrand=BentleyHockey
Last Time Out: Bentley split at Mercyhurst last weekend. They dropped the first game 4-3 but rebounded with a 5-3 win on Saturday.
Saturday's game saw the Falcons rally from 2-0 and score five unanswered goals. Two goals in quick succession at the end of the 2nd period tied the game, with the tallies coming from Danny Pearson and Nicholas Niemo.
Niemo then scored the go-ahead goal on the power play at 8:43 of the 3rd period to make the score 3-2. Freshman Arlo Merritt scored with 5:32 remaining and defenseman Tucker Hodgson scored an empty-netter with 1:02 left to make it 5-2.
Falcons goalie Nicholas Grabko made 34 saves in the win.
Niemo on Fire: Nicholas Niemo has a seven-game scoring streak going into this weekend. He has four goals and nine assists for 13 points during the streak, which is the longest such streak by a Bentley player this season.
His assists and points output in January led Atlantic Hockey, and saw him named the AHA Rookie of the Month. He was also named the Rookie of the Week on Monday for the second time in three weeks.
Niemo's line mates, fellow freshmen Arlo Merritt and Stephen Castagna, have also been putting up numbers as of late. Merritt has four goals in the last five games and Castagna has six points in the last five games, with two goals and four assists.
That line ranks 4th in Atlantic Hockey in goals scored together with 9. Another Bentley line, Cole Kodsi, Lucas Vanroboys and Dylan Pitera is 3rd in the AHA in goals scored together with 10.
Firsts for a Pair D-Men: Freshmen defensemen Seth Bernard-Docker and Pat Lawn scored their first career goals last Friday at Mercyhurst. Seven different freshmen have now scored this season.
In all 21 different players have scored goals for Bentley this season, led by seven from graduate student Dylan Pitera.
25 different players have at least one point this season, with eight players in double digits so far.
Games at RIT on NESN+: Bentley's games at RIT in two weekends on Feb. 17 and 18 will be broadcast live on NESN+. The game on Feb. 17 begins at 7:05 PM and the game on Feb. 18 starts at 5:05 PM
Up Next: Bentley is back at home next weekend on Feb. 3 & 4 against Holy Cross.