When Atlantic Hockey’s administration puts together highlight reels, it might want to dial up Friday night’s Bentley-Mercyhurst game film.
The Falcons and Lakers dueled for 60 minutes into the night, producing 80 shots and seven goals. They peppered each other for 30 shots and five goals in the third period alone.
There was physicality, intensity, a comeback and a little bit of controversy. And in the end, a one-goal win went to the home team as Bentley defeated Mercyhurst, 4-3, for its first victory of the season.
“We had unbelievable chances to score goals,” Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin said. “But (Bentley goalie) Jayson Argue was the best player in the game tonight. I think it could’ve been four or five to nothing at some points.”
The Lakers attacked Argue in the first period, opening up a 12-9 shot advantage, but lost all of their early momentum in a 15-second swing. Jeremy Wu took a hooking penalty, and Bentley capitalized, scoring on the power play when Ryner Gorowsky fed a pass to Charlie Marchand. Marchand punched the goal home to give Bentley the 1-0 lead.
The lead held thanks to the Bentley defense, even though Mercyhurst goaltender Brandon Wildung stonewalled an on-rushing Falcon attack. Bentley tilted the ice with 16 of the period’s 29 shots, but it lost the lead when Lester Lancaster scored a top-shelf goal at the 7:29 mark to tie the game at 1-1 and heighten anticipation of a wild third period.
But with time winding down, the Lakers took a major penalty when officials called Nathan Ferriero for charging. It put Bentley a man up for the final nine seconds of the period, during which it almost scored. After sitting out the intermission, that’s exactly what they did to start the third.
Two minutes into the third, Kyle Schmidt potted his second of the season after he received the puck out of a helter skelter play along the boards. It was a close play because Bentley was nearly offsides, but after video review proved inconclusive, the goal stood for a 2-1 Bentley lead. They made it 3-1 two minutes later during the man advantage when Luke Santerno buried a Schmidt pass on the doorstep for his first collegiate goal.
“It was really important to get at least one goal,” Bentley coach Ryan Soderquist said. “Getting two put a little extra icing on the cake. It’s tough to get a power play to start the period, so we tried to have our guys focus early and have some intensity. There can be a tendency to fall asleep on the early power play, so I give credit to the guys to come out early and get those goals.”
From there, the intensity ratcheted to another level. Mercyhurst stormed back with two goals in 20 seconds after referees whistled seven penalties. Jonathan Charbonneau was first, scoring on the power play before Kane Elliott tied the game with a seeing-eye puck through Argue.
“We took a five-minute major that was a tough call,” Gotkin said. “I’m not sure it should’ve even been a two after I saw the replay, but that’s how it goes. We gave up a couple of goals there, but then we showed a lot of jam to come back and tie it up. Then we got a bad bounce.”
The bad bounce wound up being the game’s decisive goal. With six minutes remaining in the period, Connor Brassard flipped a puck at Wildung from the point. The puck somehow managed to handcuff the goalie, and it floated into the back of the net.
Bentley held on from there, including a penalty kill with 69 seconds left, to break through for its first win of the season.
“It’s important to get the first one off our backs,” Soderquist said. “We’ve been playing really hard with nothing to show for it, so I’m really excited for the guys in the locker room. We got that out of the way, so now we can go out and enjoy the rest of the season.”
The teams will do it again on Saturday at Ryan Arena. If Friday is an indication, it’ll be a tough, hard-fought game built out of mutual respect.
“I thought it was a good game,” Gotkin said. “I like Bentley’s game, and they played well. I liked a lot of our game even though I didn’t like the outcome. There are a lot of good parts to our game, and we have to continue it but there are also parts that we have to keep getting better at.”
“Mercyhurst is an impressive team,” Soderquist said. “Both of these teams have tons of speed, and it’ll make for a fun game to watch tomorrow.”
Atlantic Hockey Roundup
Ohio State 5, Robert Morris 3
The Colonials held a 2-1 advantage after the first period but surrendered three second-period goals in the loss to the host Buckeyes. Ohio State outshot RMU by a 20-7 mark in the third period en route to a 45-27 advantage.
Eight different goal scorers made it onto the scoresheet, with five scoring their first of the season. Timmy Moore and Daniel Mantenuto scored for the Colonials while Tanner Lazcynski, Eugene Fayeyev and Austin Pooley scored their first of the year for Ohio State. Luke Lynch, John Wiitala, and Matthew Reis rounded out scoring for Robert Morris and Ohio State, respectively.
RIT 5, Army West Point 4
Despite trailing 2-0 after the first period, RIT used four second period goals to rally past Army West Point in what might have been the AHC game of the night. Tyler Pham and Michael Wilson staked the Black Knights in the first, but two power play goals helped double up the Tigers in the second.
In the third period, Army scored in the first four minutes to cut the lead back to a 4-3 score, but Gabe Valenzuela potted the eventual game winner five minutes later. Dominic Franco scored an extra attacker goal in the last minute for the final margin.
Niagara 3, Sacred Heart 2
The Purple Eagles recorded two power-play goals to rally from an early 2-0 deficit and take the road victory in Bridgeport, Conn. Derian Plouffe scored in the first minute of the third, marking three goals between the two teams in the early minutes of periods during the game.
Sacred Heart’s two goals both came in the first three minutes of the first, but Eric Cooley scored to halve the lead into the locker room. Tanner Lomsnes scored on the power play to tie the game after two, setting the stage for Plouffe’s game winner.
Holy Cross 5, Dartmouth 3
Scott Pooley scored a hat trick in the second period to help boost his team past Dartmouth in the Big Green’s season debut. After he scored on the power play in the first four minutes, Pooley scored again with 90 seconds left in the second to stake the Crusaders to a 3-0 lead. Johnny Coughlin added the meat of that goal sandwich in that first frame.
But the Big Green were undaunted and scored three straight of their own over a five-minutes span at the end of the first and beginning of the second, using a power play goal at the 3:32 mark to tie it up. But Pooley scored the hat trick goal on the power play with seven minutes left, and Ryan Ferrill added a third period insurance goal.
No. 18 Air Force 3, Canisius 1
The Falcons and Golden Griffins traded goals through the first seven minutes of the second period before Matt Pulver and Zack Mirageas scored to lift Air Force past Canisius.
Matt Serratore scored Air Force’s opening goal, giving him a goal in three consecutive games.
