WALTHAM, Mass. – The two-time defending Atlantic Hockey champions Bentley Falcons officially open the 2026-27 season on Friday when they host the Vermont Catamounts. Puck drop is set for 7:00 pm and will be streamed on
FloHockey
Game Notes
On Saturday the Falcons will host Northeastern for a 6:00 pm start.
It was a little less than seven months ago when the Falcons defeated Sacred Heart on home-ice to clinch their second straight AHA championship. Now on Friday night, the championship banner, along with the 2025-26 regular season championship banner, will be raised to the rafters at Bentley Arena.
The 2026-27 Falcons are captained by senior
Kellan Hjartarson, a preseason All-Conference selection and the 2026 AHA Best Defensive Forward award winner. The assistant captains are senior defensemen
Colton Cameron and
Garrett Horsager.
Head Coach
Andy Jones enters his fourth season behind the Falcons bench. The 2026 AHA Coach of the Year, he has led Bentley to a program record 23 wins in each of the last two years.
The Falcons received 23 votes in this week's USCHO poll, the fifth most of any team outside of the top-20. They ended last season ranked 20
th in the poll.
21 players return from last season's group, 13 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies. Hjartarson is leading returning scorer with 34 points (10g, 24a) and junior
Michael Mesic is the leading returning goal scorer (15).
The defensemen are led by Horsager, Cameron and senior
Jack Dalton, who was named third team All-Conference last year.
The goaltending duo of
Lukas Swedin and
Nicholas Bevilacqua combined to win 23 games and posted a .926 save percentage.
Eight newcomers joined the roster in the offseason, four forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender. One of the forwards is
James Duerr, whose brother Sam was a defensemen at Bentley from 2023-25.
Friday's game will be just the third all-time meeting between Bentley and Vermont. They played a series in Burlington in the 2016-17 season.
Saturday will be the 16
th all-time matchup against Northeastern.
