NEVILLE TOWNSHIP, Penn. — The Bentley Falcons came into the third period down a goal and with their season on the line. And, they found a way to come up with two quick power play strikes in the first three minutes of the frame which proved to be the difference in their 4-3 victory over the Robert Morris Colonials in game two of their first round Atlantic Hockey playoff series. The goals came off the sticks of the Falcons big guns as the team’s second leading scorer, freshman Luke Santerno knocked in a rebound at the one minute mark, while leading scorer Kyle Schmidt provided the game winner 1:33 later.
“We came from behind a couple of times tonight,” Bentley head coach Ryan Soderquist said. “Especially coming into the third with our backs against the wall and our season on the line, I couldn’t be more proud of how our guys answered that last twenty minute and specially the power play. We felt they let us down a little last night and they answered tonight so we’re proud of them. I think there was a little bit more open ice and I thought it was a bit more physical tonight and guys were kind of running around trying to throw some hits on both sides and it created some open ice.”
Colonial forward Luke Lynch got his team off and running less than two minutes into the first period as he pushed a puck in the low slot home for the critical early lead. However, the Falcons refused to let the goal change their mindset or the way they prefer to play as they kept their poise and climbed back into the game with a deflection from Charlie Marchand at 9:58 of the first, and a wrap around courtesy of Jonathan Desbiens that beat Colonials net minder Francis Marotte the post with less than a minute remaining.
The Falcons looked to add to their lead in the second frame and kept a sizable shot advantage, but were kept off the scoreboard by Marotte who stopped all 16 shots. Meanwhile, the Colonial’s secondary scoring, which had been a source of frustration in recent weeks, stepped up in a big way on a big stage as Matthew Graham and Daniel Mantenuto helped their team catch and pass the Falcons before the end of the second frame.
The Colonials would get no closer though as an array of penalties and missed opportunities sealed their fate and helped Bentley survive for one more night.
“There was a couple of times we got into some penalty trouble and that obviously hurt us quite a bit,” Colonial captain Alex Bontje said. “It’s over, we have to turn the page and look forward to tomorrow. We’re trying to push the pace and obviously we had our chances tonight and we just need to bear down and put some of them in the back of the net.”
The Falcons were in the same position just two years ago and came out on the short end as the Colonials advanced in the second round series. On Sunday, they’ll be up against it once again as they find themselves one win away from pulling off a difficult road playoff round win.
“We have to trust the process and trust the guy net to us and not try to do it ourselves and be running around,” Soderquist said. “We have to stay to our systems and trust the process.”
Meanwhile, the Colonials will simply have to find a way to stay out of the penalty box while doing the things they’ve been doing well, to make their way forward.
“I thought we played pretty good for two periods and actually I thought we had a lot of energy and a lot of chances,” Robert Morris head coach Derek Schooley said. “We just didn’t kill the two penalties to start the third period and chased the game and then we had chances after that, we just needed one more goal. I think we just need to make sure that we stay out of the penalty box. We have to flush this loss today, we don’t have time to worry about it, we have to focus on one game and we have to make sure that we get the job done and not worry about anything that happened tonight.”
