WALTHAM, Mass. – Unbeaten in their last five games, Bentley visits Sacred Heart's Martire Family Arena for an Atlantic Hockey series on Friday and Saturday nights. Puck drop for Friday's game is at 7:00 pm and Saturday's game begins at 6:00 pm.
Game Notes
Both games will be streamed live on FloHockey. Saturday's game can be seen on tape delay on SNY.
The Falcons have won three straight games, all on the road. They defeated Holy Cross on Jan. 3, 8-3, and swept Air Force last weekend by scores of 5-1 and 3-1. The unbeaten run stands at 4-0-1 and goes back to Dec. 6 with a 3-2 win over Niagara and a shootout win over Holy Cross on Jan. 2.
Bentley enters the weekend at 11-1-2 in Atlantic Hockey for 36 points. That gives them a nine-point lead over Holy Cross and RIT, with the Crusaders having two games in-hand.
The team is 12-6-2 overall. They received votes in this week's USCHO poll, the fourth most of any team outside the top-20.
Sacred Heart comes into the weekend at 7-5-2 in the AHA for 26 points. That has them in fourth place and eight points ahead of fifth place Air Force. Last weekend, they split a series at Niagara. They lost the first game in overtime 5-4 and won the second game 4-2.
This series features all four of the most recent AHA weekly award winners. Bentley's
Jake Black was named the Forward of the Week and
Lukas Swedin was the Goalie of the Week, for the second time this season.
Sacred Heart goalie Teagan Kendrick was the Rookie of the Week and Noah Ellis the Defenseman of the Week.
On Wednesday, Swedin was named to the Richter Award Watchlist for the nation's top men's collegiate goaltender. The freshman from Stockholm, Sweden is fourth nationally in goals against average (1.80) and sixth in save percentage (.933).
This will be the first of two series over the next month between these teams. They'll meet again at Bentley Arena on Feb. 13-14.
The all-time series is slightly in SHU's favor at 44-41-7. Bentley went 4-1 against them last season, including a sweep on the road in the AHA semifinals. In the regular season Bentley went 2-1. They swept a home-and-home series on Nov. 1 and 2 (4-2 win at home, 6-4 win on the road) and dropped a road game 2-0 on Feb. 22 which was the regular season finale.
Following this weekend's series, Bentley returns home to face #18 ranked Princeton in a non-conference series on Jan. 23-24.
