At first glance, it’s pretty tough to glean positives from a weekend where a team posts back-to-back losses. Despite two straight losses to the RIT Tigers this weekend, that’s exactly where Bentley finds themselves.
The Falcons lost, 6-3, to the Tigers on Saturday night, providing the back end of a four-point weekend for the visitors from Atlantic Hockey’s western sector, but along the way, they’re finding that they’re still a solid team, despite one very large missing piece.
For the second straight night, RIT used special teams to pave their road to victory. On a power play in the first six minutes, Caleb Cameron popped a puck over the defense to Erik Brown. A bounce and a swat later, the Tigers found themselves up 1-0 on a fluky type play.
Later in the period, Bentley found themselves on a five-on-three power play and couldn’t manage a shot. Toward the end of the ensuing five-on-four, after the Tigers got a player back, Abbott Girduckis found Myles Powell for a short-handed goal that gave RIT a 2-0 lead. Later in the period, with Bentley back on a power play, Girduckis and Powell did it again, beating an odd-man rush to put the Tigers up 3-0 with six seconds left.
Bentley bounced back with an early goal in the second, but surrendered two more goals late in the period for a 5-1 lead after two. The Falcons refused to go away, scoring twice early in the third to cut the lead to 5-3 before an empty-net goal sealed their fate.
“I honestly thought our penalty kill was pretty good,” said Bentley coach Ryan Soderquist. “We did give up a goal, but it was a bad bounce. That’s not a concern of mine right now, and I think we’ll be okay there. Our power play is in tough shape right now, but that falls on my shoulders. With the five-on-three, we simply didn’t make plays that we should make, and we need to execute and get on the same page.”
The positive to glean is that Bentley, this early in the season, is capable of hanging with the league’s two-time defending champions. If they can take away the two major mistakes on the power play, the game becomes a 3-3 game.
“I think our five-on-five play was pretty even,” said Soderquist. “I felt like our five-on-five shot totals were pretty even. I thought we played well there; our issues are with special teams, and special teams and goaltending are where you win games. Our power play was minus-2 and we gave up a power-play goal, so that makes us minus-3 and we lost by three.”
Atlantic Hockey roundup
No. 15 Ohio State 6, at Niagara 2
The Buckeyes remained undefeated thanks to two first-period goals. Leading 3-1 after two, they iced their fifth victory with three goals in the first five minutes of the third period, sweeping the Purple Eagles in New York.
No. 19 Penn State 4, Canisius 2
After Canisius scored to take a 1-0 lead, the Nittany Lions took a 2-1 lead in the first period before opening up a 3-1 lead. Canisius added a short-handed goal to cut the lead to one before the end of the second, but they couldn’t tie up Penn State, which won for the second straight night.
Yale 4, Sacred Heart 1
The Bulldogs overcame a Jeff Carroll goal to lead 3-1 in the first period to win their home opener. Of the 18 penalties called, three came in the first, with the remaining whistles crossing the second and third period.
Army West Point 2, at Robert Morris 1
The Colonials outshot the Black Knights by a 36-17 difference, including a 21-6 third period margin. Parker Gahagen out-dueled Francis Marotte and protected what was a 2-0 lead, only allowing the one third-period goal to give his team the weekend split.
Mercyhurst 6, AIC 3
Lester Lancaster scored twice as the Lakers opened a 6-0 lead in the second period. AIC scored three times to rally, but it wasn’t enough as Mercyhurst earned the home ice split.
