Bentley Heads to Canisius for Key Atlantic Hockey Tilt

February 20, 2004

Courtesy of Bentley Sports Information Department

WALTHAM, Mass. --- After taking a pair of games from conference rival Quinnipiac University last weekend, the Bentley College hockey team travels west to battle Canisius College in a key Atlantic Hockey tilt Friday night (Feb. 20) at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.

Bentley and Canisius enter Friday night's contest deadlocked in sixth place in the up-for- grabs Atlantic Hockey standings with 14 points, sandwiched between fifth-place Connecticut (15 pts.) and seventh-place Army (13 pts.).

This is the third meeting of the season between Bentley and Canisius, with the Griffs taking a 4-1 contest in game one and the two teams skating to a 3-3 tie in game two. Canisius leads the all-time series 12-3-2.

Bentley goes to Buffalo coming off one of its most successful weekends in recent memory, having swept Quinnipiac by identical 3-2 scores in a home-and-home series last weekend. With Bentley's win last Friday, the Falcons snapped a 17-game losing streak at the hands of the Bobcats and rebounded from back-to-back weekend sweeps against AIC and Holy Cross.

Leading the offensive charge against Quinnipiac was freshman Carmen Posteraro (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic HS), who has been red hot of late, tallying the game-winner and adding two helpers in the Falcons win in Hamden, Conn. The first-year forward is tied for second on the team with 18 points, is tied for first in the league with three game-winning goals and has eight points in Bentley's last seven games.

The Falcons' leading scorer, sophomore Brendan McCartin (Camp Hill, Pa./Cedar Cliff HS), added to his totals with a goal and an assist last Saturday, and has 20 points on the season, including five in the last four games.

Bentley is the only team in the league which features three defensemen in the top 10 in scoring among blueliners, with junior Seth Vinocur (Traverse City, Mich./Traverse City HS), sophomore Brett Murphy (Caledonia, Mich./Kentwood HS) and freshman Kyle Larman (Canton, Mich./Plymouth-Canton HS) recording 14, 11 and 11 points, respectively.

Bentley also received outstanding play from backup net minder Geordan Murphy (Matawan, N.J./Seton Hall Prep), who stepped in for an injured Simon St. Pierre (Montreal, Que./College Bourget). Murphy had a career day in the first game against Quinnipiac, making 33 saves for the game, including 16 in the first period alone, en route to his first collegiate win. He followed up that performance the following night with 21 stops, including several in the closing seconds to preserve the Falcons' one-goal lead.

Canisius enters Friday's game winless in its last eight games, and were outscored 12-4 in two losses against Connecticut last time out. Standout freshman Michael Cohen leads the Griffins offense with eight goals and 10 assists and is tied with Posteraro for sixth in the league in freshman scoring.

In net, the Canisius leans on the shoulders of junior Bryan Worosz, who enters Friday's game with a 4-10-7 record in 21 games played. His 2.97 goals against average is good for fifth in the league and he ranks ninth save percentage (.897) and seventh in winning percentage (.357).