TROY, N.Y. - Bentley University took third place at the RPI Holiday Tournament after defeating Lake Superior State in a shootout 2-0 on Saturday afternoon at Houston Field House. Senior Marc Menzione (Darien, Ill./Mahoning Valley Phantoms) and junior Dustin Cloutier (Berkley, Mich./Mahoning Valley Phantoms) scored for the Falcons in the shootout. The game will go into the books as a 2-2 tie.
Three periods of regulation and five minutes of overtime weren't enough to determine a winner, so the game went to a three round shootout after overtime ended with the game still tied at two.
Falcons goalie Kyle Rank (Islip, N.Y./Markham Waxers), who was the star of the game with a career-high 49 saves, first denied Lake Superior's Brad Cooper with a pad save. Menzione then shot next, and he beat Lakers goalie Brian Mahoney-Wilson with a nifty backhand shot top-shelf. That gave Bentley a 1-0 lead.
Rank then stifled Lake Superior's Chad Nehring, saving his wrist shot with another pad save. That set the stage for Cloutier, who snuck the puck under Mahoney-Wilson's pads with a wrist shot, giving Bentley the win.
The Falcons came out of the gates fast in this game and scored two first period goals. Senior defenseman Anders Olson (Edina, Minn./Williams Lake Timberwolves) got the first one, taking a sharp cross-ice pass from freshman Joe Campanelli (Pierrefonds, Quebec/Westminster Prep) on the near side of the net and beating an out of position Mahoney-Wilson. That gave Bentley a 1-0 lead 8:12 into the game.
Exactly eight minutes later the Falcons went up 2-0 on freshman Brandon Bahnemann's (Rochester, Minn./Springfield Jr. Blues) goal. After taking a pass from classmate Jordy Trottier (Bozeman, Mont./Mahoning Valley Phantoms) from behind the net, Bahnemann put a shot on net from Mahoney-Wilson's stick side that deflected in for his first career goal.
Lake Superior though dominated the next two periods and overtime in terms of shots on goal, out shooting Bentley 39-12. Rank though only allowed two goals and made 37 saves over that period.
The only goals Rank allowed came in the first 2:27 of the second period. Junior Dillin Stonehouse scored just 26 seconds into the period on a delayed penalty, taking a slap shot from the point that beat Rank through the five-hole.
After Stonehouse's goal, two quick Bentley penalties gave the Lakers a 5-on-3 opportunity. Lake Superior was then able to tie the score at two on sophomore Dan Barczuk's goal, 31 seconds into its two-man advantage.
That's all Rank would allow the rest of the way though, as he stopped 19 shots in the second period, 12 in the third and six in overtime.
With the tie, Bentley's record moves to 5-6-3 on the season while the Lakers go to 6-7-3. The Falcons return to the ice on Friday when they open a weekend Atlantic Hockey series at Canisius.
