ERIE, Pa. – The Mercyhurst College men's hockey team returns home this weekend to host Bentley in an Atlantic Hockey series on Friday, Jan. 22 and Saturday, Jan. 23 at 7:05 p.m. at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.

Mercyhurst ventures back to Erie after suffering a two-game sweep at Sacred Heart last weekend by the scores of 6-3 and 3-2. The red-hot Pioneers, who improved to 6-0-1 in their last seven games, dealt the Lakers their first series sweep since mid-November and knocked them out of first place in the league standings.

Five different Lakers found the back of the net in the series, including junior Brandon Coccimiglio with his team-leading 14th goal of the season and junior Mike Gurtler with his nation-leading fourth short-handed goal of the year. Junior Scott Pitt dished out two assists in Friday's game to record his third-straight two-assist outing. He followed up the performance with an assist on Saturday, giving him points in four-straight games. Freshman Paul Chiasson also extended his point-streak to four games, scoring a goal and an assist in the 6-3 decision and a helper in the 3-2 setback. Junior Ryan Zapolski saw his record dip to 11-11-2 with both losses.

Mercyhurst will look to bounce back when Bentley visits Erie for the first time in over a year. The Falcons, who enter the series 9-10-3 overall and 7-7-2 in conference play, have fallen on hard times recently, dropping three straight after putting together a three-game winning streak, which included a 4-1 stunner over then-No. 15 Massachusetts.

Under the direction reigning AHA Coach of the Year Ryan Soderquist, the Falcons have averaged 2.82 goal per game through 22 games thus far, and have four players with 12 points or better. Marc Menzione leads the squad with nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points, followed by Joe Campanelli and Bobby Preece with 16 points apiece and Dan Koudys with 12 points.  In goal, Kyle Rank leads the way with a 6-7-2 record to go along with an .898 save percentage and a 3.37 goals against average.

Mercyhurst and Bentley will be meeting for the second time this season after both teams split a two-game series back in October. The Falcons captured game one by the score of 4-2 while Mercyhurst got revenge in game two, prevailing 6-2 for its first win of the season and moving to 24-8-5 in the all-time series.

Following this weekend, Mercyhurst takes a break from conference play with a trip to Colorado, where the Lakers will face No. 1 Denver on Friday, Feb. 5 at 7:37 p.m. and No. 8 Colorado College on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 7:07 p.m. Both games are Mountain Standard Time.