Air Force and Bentley skate to 4-4 overtime tie

WALTHAM, Mass. – Bentley's Brendan Hamblet tied the game with 2:30 left in the third as Air Force and Bentley skated to a 4-4 overtime tie in an Atlantic Hockey Association game Saturday, Feb. 19, at the Bentley Ice Arena in Waltham, Mass. Bentley won the shootout, 2-1 in four rounds, to earn the extra point in the standings. Air Force took four points in the series.

Air Force (12-15-3, 10-11-3 AHA) opened the scoring when Luke Rowe collected a puck in his own end and lobbed it down the right side. Andrew DeCarlo controlled it and scored with a wrister off the cross bar and in from the right circle. DeCarlo's third of the season came at 18:13. Bentley tied the game with 49 seconds left when Luke Orysiuk scored with a slap shot from the center point.

Bentley (12-16-2, 10-12-2 AHA) took a 2-1 lead early in the second period as Orysiuk netted his second of the game with a wrister through traffic. Air Force answered with three goals in a span of five minutes. Freshman Clayton Cosentino tied the game at 4:46 on the rush. Mitchell Digby made a long outlet pass to Parker Brown at the far blue line and Brown set up Cosentino for his sixth of the season. Just over 90 seconds later, Mitchell Digby gave the Falcons a 3-2 lead with a wrister from the right point. Austin Schwartz kept the puck alive and Sam Brennan slid the puck across to Digby on the right side. Digby buried his sixth of the season at 6:18. The Falcons took a 4-2 lead when Brian Adams forced a turnover at the Air Force blue line, skated uncontested down the left wing and scored his fourth of the season at 9:42. Bentley responded with 3:45 left in the second when Harrison Scott skated down the right side, went to the net and cut the AF lead to 4-3.

Air Force held on to the one-goal lead until late in the third. On a chaotic flurry in front of the Falcon net, Hamblet scored with 2:30 left in the third to tie the game.
Neither team scored in overtime, but Bentley's best chance was turned away by Alex Schillng, stopping a breakaway by Orysiuk.

In the shootout, Air Force's Will Gavin and Bentley's Matt Gosiewski each scored in the first round. Neither team scored in the second round. Bentley had the final shot in the third round, but Scott's shot went off the post. In the fourth round, Willie Reim's shot was saved, but Bentley's Lucan Vanroboys scored for the shootout win.

"We didn't manage the game very well at the end," head coach Frank Serratore said. "It was very disappointing to only get one point with as hard as we played. But we got sloppy in our own end. We have given up way too many third-period leads. The good news is that we did get four points in the series. With a lead late in the third, we had a chance to get all six points and we didn't get it done."

Bentley outshot Air Force, 31-29, in the game. Air Force was 0-for-2 on the power play while Bentley was 0-for-1. Alex Schilling made 27 saves for Air Force while Nicholas Grabko had 25 for Bentley.

Air Force closes out the regular season with a two-game league series against RIT, Feb. 25-26.

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