WALTHAM, Mass. – The early season Atlantic Hockey schedule rolls on this weekend for the Bentley hockey team when they host the RIT Tigers for a two-game set.
Game Notes
Friday's game gets underway at 7:00 pm and Saturday's tilt is a 6:00 pm start.
The Falcons enter the weekend with a 3-1 AHA record for nine points, which has them in second place in the conference standings. They split a home-and-home series with Holy Cross last weekend, with each team claiming a victory on its home-ice.
RIT comes in at 1-3 in AHA games after suffering a sweep to first-place Army in West Point last weekend. The Tigers began the season with a split of a home-and-home series with Niagara, and have played series against UMass and RPI, with a single game against Michigan State as well.
Bentley rebounded from a 2-0 defeat at Holy Cross last Friday with a 4-3 home win on Halloween night. Defenseman
Alec Leonard scored the go-ahead goal at 8:08 of the 3rd period to break a 3-3 tie.
After falling behind early with a Holy Cross goal 4:14 into the game, later in the period Bentley scored three times in a span of less than three minutes.
James Duerr,
Dylan Cook and
Ephram McNutt had the goals.
For McNutt, a first year defenseman from Alberta, it was his first NCAA goal. McNutt came to Bentley after four seasons in the WHL.
Second year forward
Jan Gaspar has five points (three goals, two assists) in the last five games. Gaspar missed almost all of his first season and didn't debut until Feb. 7. He scored his first three NCAA goals in the sweep of Robert Morris, with two on Oct. 23 in a 5-0 win.
Jimmy Doyle has gotten his senior year off to a strong start after missing almost all of last season. Doyle has six points to lead the team thus far on one goal and five assists.
The all-time series between these teams favors the Tigers at 30-20-4. They played two single games last season in each location and Bentley won both. They won in Waltham 3-2 on November 21, and in Rochester 4-3 on Feb. 20. The latter cliched the program's first AHA regular season title.
After this weekend's slate, Bentley heads out to Colorado for a series at Air Force that is on Nov. 12-13
