The 2024–25 Bentley Falcons men's ice hockey season was the 48th season of play for the program, the 26th at the Division I level and the 1st in Atlantic Hockey America. The Falcons represented Bentley University, played their home games at the Bentley Arena in Waltham, Massachusetts and were coached by Andy Jones in his 2nd season.
Season Bentley entered the season with few expectations, at least no more than they had in any previous campaign. Being selected to finish in the middle of the AHA standings, the team began the season with Connor Hasley starting in goal. The junior netminder had shared the crease the previous season but, with Nicholas Grabko having transferred, Hasley had first dibs on the crease. Early in the season, he didn't look like the answer between the pipes as Bentley went winless in their first three games. Max Beckford then began to alternate with Hasley before the upperclassman got into his stride and control of the starting job by the beginning of November.
The early part of the season was also a trying time for several skaters on the Falcons as a bevy of graduate players got off to slow starts as well. However, the team seemed to have gotten their skating legs by the second month of the season. After a poor start, Bentley went 7–1 in November with Hasley posting 4 shutouts to push the Falcons to the top of the conference standings and put them into a position to earn their first regular season title since their division III days. Up front, team captain Ethan Leyh was leading the charge with the 6th-year player scoring in all but one game during that stretch.
After returning from the winter break, Bentley kicked off the second half of their season with a win over #4 Maine, a fairly stunning victory for an Atlantic Hockey program, and were able to climb up into the top half of the PairWise rankings at the beginning of January. However, due to poor non-conference record of both Bentley and Atlantic Hockey, the Falcons would have to play almost perfect hockey to earn their way into an at-large position. Any hope for that was soon extinguished as the Falcons went on a skid during the first month of the year. After going 2–6, the team had fallen down the standings and nearly were back to a .500 record overall. While Hasley's performance had declined a bit during the skid, it was primarily the lack of offense that plagued the team. Bentley scored more than 2 goals in just one game and were held to 1 goal or fewer on five occasions.
The beginning of February saw the team begin anew with the offense finding its scoring touch once more. The team went 5–2 down the stretch and ended up finishing 3rd in the standings. Hasley added three more shutouts to his total to set a new program record not only for a season but for a career (Simon St. Pierre held the previous record with 6 career shutouts for the Falcons). Bentley entered the postseason with more wins than had been able to collect in the previous decade but they would still have to overcome a long history of playoff failures. Only once since they joined Division I in 1999 had Bentley been able to win more than one round in a single playoff and that had happened nearly 20 years earlier.
However, from the start of their postseason run, the Falcons looked like a team on a mission. After sitting for a week thanks to their quarterfinal bye, Hasley was absolutely dialed-in against Canisius, stopping all 51 shots he faced to send the Falcons to their first semifinal appearance in 16 years. Sacred Heart was finally able to break through and end Hasley's streak but the offense surged in the second half and scored the final 5 goals of the game. Hasley then reverted to his brick-wall form, blanking the Pioneers for his 11th of the season, putting him just 1 shy of the all-time NCAA record.
The championship game pitted Bentley against Holy Cross. Hasley was unable to stop all-American Liam McLinskey from putting his team up by 2 goals thanks to two power play markers but the Falcons' offense came to the rescue once more, scoring six goals in the final 40 minutes. Leyh and Nik Armstrong-Kingkade finished the game with three points each to lead Bentley to their first conference championship since 1981 and their first ever NCAA tournament appearance.
The reward for Bentley's best season was to face the #1 team in the nation, Boston College, in the opening round of the tournament. Despite the sizable disparity in apparent raw talent, Bentley was able to control long stretches of the game. Though they surrendered the opening goal at the end of the first period, Leyh was able to tie the game early in the second on the man-advantage. The Falcons were able to hold off the Eagles' attack and kept themselves within 1 shot of a lead for over half the match. BC was then able to solve Bentley's stout defensive effort and scored two goals (one into an empty net) in the final 80 seconds.
Departures Jonathan Bendorf Forward Graduation (signed with Reading Royals) Cooper Connell Forward Transferred to club team Nicholas Grabko Goaltender Graduate transfer to Alaska Ethan Harrison Forward Graduation (retired) Josh Latta Forward Graduation (retired) Danny Pearson Forward Left program (retired) Joshua Seeley Goaltender Transferred to Skidmore Matt Thomson Forward Graduation (retired)
Recruiting Oskar Kind Bakkevig Forward 20 Oslo, NOR Max Beckford Goaltender 21 London, ON Nicholas Bevilacqua Goaltender 21 Abington, MA Jake Black Forward 22 Pomfret, CT; transfer from Connecticut Artem Buzoberya Forward 25 Kharkov, UKR; graduate transfer from Hobart David Helledy Defenseman 21 Milwaukee, WI Oliver Salo Forward 21 Kaarina, FIN
Roster As of August 4, 2024
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" |Regular season
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NCAA tournament
Game summaryThe game started with BC being able to get the puck in deep while the Falcons could barely get over the blueline. While neither team was able to establish any real zone time, the Eagles were able to get several shots on Connor Hasley in the first few minutes. On one such exchange around the 4-minute mark, Hasley was unable to freeze the puck but got a lucky break when the ref lost sight of the puck and blew the whistle erroneously. Around the same time, Ryan Leonard ran into Hasley after being knocked down and the two forced the net off its moorings. On a later play, Hasley was able to push the net out of place with his leg, continuing an issue that the ice crew had been dealing with since before the start of the match. The game was paused for several minutes to give the maintenance team time to try and reset the pegs. On the ensuing play, Bentley appeared to commit two separate infractions, at least according to the BC faithful, but the referees disagreed. With the Eagles unable to buy a questionable call, Boston College started trying to push Bentley around after the whistle to see if they could goad one of the Falcons into making a mistake. While BC attempted to plant that seed, they persisted with the offensive pressure. The Eagles were able to tilt the ice towards the Falcons' end and set up in the offensive zone and besieged Hasley for several minutes in the middle of the period. A further potential Bentley penalty went uncalled by the referees who appeared to have decided to just let the two teams play. In spite of the lack of power plays, BC led in shots 10–0 halfway through the period. Bentley got a break when BC committed an icing call, giving the Falcons their first offensive zone draw of the game with 9 minutes to play. BC won the faceoff but then immediately iced the puck a second time. The second draw was a little closer but BC still managed to clear the zone. Moments later, the first penalty of the game was on Aidan Hreschuk for crosschecking. Many in the crowd were in disbelief with the borderline call after the earlier plays that had been let go. BC went on the attack during the disadvantage and was able to get a disjointed break on the Benley goal. After the Falcons regain possession they were able to set up their power play and get their first two shots of the match. While he had not seen any action to that point, Jacob Fowler was equal to the task. Once even strength play resumed, BC tried to get right back to their dominant play. Bentley, however, was able to built off their failed power play and finally break through the Boston College defense. Play evened out in the later part of the period but a bad turnover at the far blueline led to a rush up the ice by BC. Leonard found Gabe Perreault open down low and the winger moved around Hasley and slipped the puck into the net. Undaunted, Bentley went on the attack to try and get the goal back but they were unable to get a good shot on goal. With about a minute to play, the BC goal had trouble staying in position so the game was paused for a second time to fix the problem. When play resumed for a second time, BC's upped their offensive pressure. Hasley was forced to scramble but managed to keep the puck out until the horn sounded.
The second began with the two teams exchanging chances off the rush and, after a minute, the net behind Hasley was knocked from its mooring. On the ensuing play, BC was able to halt a Bentley rush but Lukas Gustafsson took a tripping minor in doing so. The Falcons had trouble setting up in the offensive zone but when they were finally able to do so, Ethan Leyh got two solid shots on goal, the second of which beat Fowler. After the ensuing faceoff, BC was able to finally draw it first power play with Jake Black grabbed James Hagens twice. The BC man-advantage was able to get several good looks at the goal but Bentley was able to block several shots while the rest either went wide or were stopped by Hasley. After Bentley iced the puck, the Falcon net was knocked out of place for the third time and the game paused once again to try and resolve the issue. After what was essentially an extra TV timeout, Bentley was able to clear the puck and relieve the pressure. Boston College remained in control for long stretches with occasional counters by Bentley. Near the middle of the period, Hasley bobbled a glove save but with no Eagle nearby the goaltender was able to smother the puck for a faceoff. By the midway point of the game it was apparent that Boston College was the better of the two and Bentley was only in the match thanks to a herculean defensive effort. Even, so, the game was tied and Nik Armstrong-Kingkade nearly gave the Falcons the lead when he hit the post on a solo rush. Just seconds later, the Falcons made a bad line change and were called for too many men. Boston College's second power play appeared to work to perfection and Perreault had a half-open cage but the puck was on edge and his shot went high and wide. Afterwards, the teams took matching minors that didn't change the makeup of the game but did take two of the top players off of the ice. When play resumed, the net behind Hasley was knocked off for the fourth time on the night and the problem was becoming as much of a story in the game as the players. The stoppage helped to kill off the rest of the BC power play as well as slow down the pace of play. The two teams carried the puck up and down the ice but neither was able to generate a good scoring chance for several minutes. With under 3 minutes to play, Bentley got on the attack but hit the post with another shot. The waning moments saw both team trying and failing to break through the defenses and the period ended with the two squads knotted at one.