Re: Bentley v/s Northeastern, Fri 10/16
These 2 teams played last yr in a 4-1 Huskies win, but (as i mentioned in our season thread), i thought the Falcons skated pretty well.
Have you lost/ gained on defense since then? How is your goaltending situation? I think NU will win.. but no blowout as i will give your D credit from last yr. Any snipers we shoud know about? As you know for us.. we lost Brad Thiessen to the pros along with other seniors like Ryan Ginand & Joe Vitale. We did get some promising freshman & they have skated very well our first 2 gms, yet we did lose one of our best skaters - Steve Quailer (who played well against you last yr).. to an ACL injury in an exhibition gm 10 days ago.
Well, how does your team look this year Bentley fans? Have you had any reg or exhibition gms so far? I thought we should have won our gm last yr by more than a couple goals but your defense was pretty good (my opinion). Thiessen wasn't too shabby either. We do have a new tender... he's settling down. He's no Thiessen...
yet
Although one of you Huskies red-squared me for a comment that I made defending Maine in one of your threads last season, I will take another chance. Here is part of a post that I made to the Bentley U. Falcons 2009-10 thread (hey, we even have our own thread now!
).
I really enjoyed the Bentley game at Matthews last year, and wish that I could attend this year, but I will be out of town. The energy in the student section (Dog Pound?) reminded me of the old days at Snively in Durham (the lack of fan energy at the Whitt is abysmal at times). I think that it is going to be another tough early season for Bentley, playing Quinnipiac the night after we visit Matthews, then a trip to Colorado Springs to play Air Force the first weekend of November. But, I expect Bentley will become better in the second half again this season (we tied for 4th in AHA last season, then made it to the tourney in Rochester, where we lost 3-0 to Air Force, who almost upset Vermont to add a third 4th seed to the F4).
I think that our top line this year will be last season's second line of Erik Peterson (#7, Jr; got our only goal off Thiessen last year), Dustin Cloutier (#23, Jr), and Marc Menzione (#19, Sr), assuming that they are kept intact, as I have not seen any practices this pre-season. I heard that our players will skate without their names on jerseys again the first half of this season, but then add their names the second half. The other guy up front to watch is Herbie Kent (#21, So), who gained a lot of experience playing on last year's third line. I think that, unlike last year, defense will be Bentley's strongest asset this season, with five of six regular D-men back (three sophomores), along with both goalies. D-man to watch is Bobby Preece (#24, Sr), who will be expected to take an even bigger role on offense this year than last.
"The 2008-2009 season was a break-through of sorts, as Bentley beat RPI (4-3 ot) and Maine (3-1), and lost to Colgate (4-1), Northeastern (4-1, a much closer game than the score might indicate), and Ohio State twice (10-1, 3-2 ot, but the blow out was primarily caused by rare lack of discipline that led to six 5-3 pp goals). Bentley also split with Air Force (2-3, 4-1, outplaying AF in the loss, I think) and Mercyhurst (4-6, 3-1, but again outplaying the Lakers in the loss, in my opinion) at J A Ryan late in the season. I really thought that Bentley could knock off the other Falcons in the AHA tourney for a chance to play the Wolverines and maybe UVM in Bridgeport. The Northeastern game was a late scheduling opportunity, which meant no Qunnipiac game last season.
As noted by Tnado, Bentley graduated their top three scorers in Jeff Gumaer, Anthony Canzoneri, and Dain Prewitt (first line, 42, 37, 35 points each, respectively), as well as Pat Percella (fourth line and best PK player) and D-man Casey Russell, who played about every game all four seasons (14 assists last year). But, last year's second line was almost as productive as the first, with Erik Peterson (So), Dustin Cloutier (So), and Marc Menzione (Jr) scoring 34, 27, 27 points each. Justin Kemmerer (Jr), who played D his first two seasons, moved up to the fourth line and point on the PP, to make room for three frosh D-men, Ryan Kayfes (2 G, 8 A), Trent Bonnett (0 G, 8 A), and Mike Switzer (0 G, 6 A), all of whom played in about every game in 2008-2009. So, with Bobby Preece (Jr, 2 G, 22 A) and Anders Olson (Jr, 0 G, 5 A) back, there is only one open slot for a D-man, in contrast with two or three slots for frosh forwards, as Soderquist's history is playing all four lines throughout most games.
My favorite Bentley goals of the 2008-2009 season were Erik Peterson's off Brad Thiessen at Matthews Arena (made the score 2-1 and hushed the crowd) and Jeff Gumaer's two in Orono, which I heard described in disbelief through a radio-feed on my computer. I do not know much about the frosh recruits, but nearly all of our athletes at Bentley are serious students and all graduate with business degrees and multiple career options. As much of a dump as J A Ryan Rink is for home ice, I enjoy watching games there, where some heat vents were added above the seating last season, but free pizza was given up, perhaps due to the economy?"
