WATERTOWN, Mass. - Senior Chris Bodo scored with 9:41 left in regulation to help the Mercyhurst University men's hockey team play to a 4-4 overtime tie against Bentley University on Friday night at the John A. Ryan Skating Arena. Mercyhurst, unbeaten in its last four games, moved to 5-3-1 overall and 3-1-1 in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings. The Falcons moved to 4-5-1 overall and 2-2-1 in conference play.

Trailing 4-3 midway through the third period, redshirt freshman Jack Riley, who had scored his first collegiate goal earlier in the contest, found Bodo who then beat Bentley goaltender Blake Dougherty for his team-leading fifth goal of the season to close out the scoring in regulation. Neither team was able get the game-winner in the extra session, with the Falcons outshooting the Lakers, 5-0, in the overtime period. 

The game was back-and-forth throughout with neither team having a lead bigger than one goal on the night. Mercyhurst held leads of 2-1 and 3-2 while Bentley led 1-0 and 4-3 before both had to settle for the tie.

The hosts scored the only goal of the opening period when Andrew Gladiuk scored his sixth goal of the season, beating Laker starting netminder Jimmy Sarjeant. Chris Buchanan and Max French had the assists on the tally at the 5:35 mark of the first period.

Shots favored the Falcons in the opening twenty minutes by a 14-9 margin.

The second period saw five goals between the two teams and it all started on special teams. Just seconds into the middle period, Bentley's Matt Blomquist was whistled for a five-minute major for boarding and the Laker power play, which had struggled through the first eight games, took advantage. Senior Zac Frischmon scored his second goal of the season, first on the power play, at the 2:16 mark of the second period to tie the contest at 1-1. The senior's second career power play marker was assisted by redshirt senior Kyle Just and freshman Jonathan Charbonneau.

Charbonneau now has at least one point in six of his first nine collegiate games.

A mere 33 seconds later, at the 2:49 mark, sophomore Kyle Dutra buried his third goal of the season past Dougherty for a 2-1 Mercyhurst advantage. Seniors Bodo and Matthew Zay had the helpers. Bodo, with his two-point night, tied Charbonneau for the team lead in scoring with eight points. Meanwhile, Zay's assist gave him 103 career points - 14th on the program's Division I scoring list.

Those would, however, be the only two goals for the Lakers on the five-minute power play. Then, just over four minutes after Blomquist checked out of the penalty box, the Falcon defenseman scored his first goal of the season, at 9:53, to knot the contest at 2-2. Steve Weinstein and Brett Switzer.

That goal would end the night for Sarjeant as last Saturday's hero, sophomore Spencer Bacon took over the goaltending duties and attempted to make history repeat itself.

Bacon was given a lead just under three minutes later. Playing in his 15th collegiate game, Riley put the Lakers back in front, 3-2, at the 12:41 mark with his first career goal. Senior Daniel Bahntge and sophomore Stephen Hrehoriak had the assists. It was Hrehoriak's first point of the season while Bahntge moved to within six points of becoming a member of the 100-point club.

Back came Bentley. Switzer beat Bacon for his second goal of the season at the 16:25 mark, sending the teams to their respective dressing rooms with the score knotted at 3-3. Andrew McDonald and Alex Grieve had the assists.

Bentley's nation's best power play struck just over three minutes into the third period when Grieve notched his third goal of the season. Weinstein and Gladiuk had the assists.

But Bodo forced overtime with his fifth goal of the season and Bacon took over from there, turning aside all five shots he faced in the extra five-minute period to preserve the tie.

Mercyhurst's power play began the season by scoring just twice on 29 chances through seven games. However, over the last two contests, the Lakers are 4-for-10 on the power play, including 2-of-5 on Friday night. Meanwhile, the Falcons, who came in with the nation's best power play unit (37.8%) went 1-for-3 with the man advantage.

Sarjeant turned aside 15-of-17 shots in 30:01 of action but was pulled for the second consecutive game. Bacon allowed two goals on 20 shots in 34:59 to move to 1-0-1 on the season. Dougherty stopped 22 of 26 Mercyhurst shots to move his record to 2-2-1 on the season. Bentley outshot Mercyhurst 37-26 for the contest.

The Lakers and the Falcons will conclude the weekend series on Saturday night in Watertown, Massachusetts. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.