Re: UNH Wildcats v Bentley Falcons Can the 'Cats Trump the Birds? Saturday Nov. 29 20
Both teams will be entering the Whitt with two-game losing streaks. The teams have had only two common opponents so far this season, with UNH having a 4-2 win and a 3-3 tie and Bentley having a 5-0 loss against Merrimack, and both losing by a goal to RPI (4-3 and 3-2, respectively). Bentley plays their first of four games against AIC on December 1st, you know, the Yellow Jackets that visited the Whitt at the beginning of the season.
Based on how the two teams played on Tuesday night, on paper UNH should beat Bentley on Saturday, also given that UNH is a lofty 34th in the PWR, whereas Bentley is lagging back at 42nd. However, I do not think that Bentley will get shut out, as they were against BU in a very lopsided SOG (47-15) differential and 3-0 loss last night. The Terriers simply kept the Falcons pinned in their own zone for most of first two periods when the Falcons only recorded 6 SOG. Bentley could neither pass nor skate the puck out of their end much until the third period when they finally mustered some offense; but, the Falcons also blew a 1:37-minute 5-3 PP in the third.
Saturday might be the first game on a large sheet for the Falcons, so perhaps they will be able to use some of their speed to get around the UNH D-men. The Falcons senior backup goalie Gabe Antoni has played well the past 10 periods and two OTs, but some of his D-men too often leave him exposed to forwards skating in all alone for point blank shots; sound familiar?
Like UNH, the Falcons have one dangerous line, which until last night at BU consisted of Sr Andrew Gladiuk (#12, 5+4=9pts in 11ga), Jr Max French (#16, 7+4=11pts in 7 ga), and Soph Kyle Schmidt (#20, 4+7=11pts in 11ga); against BU, Soph Andrew McDonald (#13, 3+0=3pts in 4ga) replaced Schmidt on this line. Gladiuk was near the top of Div 1 in PPG during his sophomore and junior seasons, but that was when he had Steve Weinstein feeding him the puck from the point. French missed the first four games of the season with a lower body injury, I think.
Best Bentley D-pair is Sr Matt Blomquist (#21, 1+6=7pts in 1ga) and Fr Tanner Jago (#4, 0+9=9pts in 11ga); two other Bentley D-men to watch are Fr Alexey Solovyev (#24) from Moscow (Russia, not Idaho) and Sr Billy Eiserman (#19) from Newburyport, a junior year transfer from UML and older bro of UNH So Shane Eiserman.
Sr Gabe Antoni got the nod in net after So Jayson Argue (2.378 GAA and 0.941 SV%) pulled his groin late in second period of first of two 3-2 OT wins at RIT on Friday the 13th. Not sure when Argue will return, as those injuries can nag.
So, I see far more similarities than differences in these two teams at the moment.
Other interesting factoids: Bentley coach Ryan Soderquist was youngest Div 1 coach in nation when he took the reins in 2002 after setting most of Bentley’s individual scoring records in the late 1990s, some since surpassed by Brett Gensler and others the past few seasons. Bentley assistant coach Ben Murphy was a freshman on the Maine Black Bears team that knocked UNH out of the St Paul FF in April 2002.
I am thinking that one team or the other wins 5-3 (an ENG) at the Whitt, but I have no idea which one. If Bentley wins, it will happen because they make good use of extra width and test Tirone from the sides.
