Springfield, Mass. – AIC's Martin Mellberg scored 1:01 into overtime to give AIC a 5-4 victory over Bentley on Tuesday night in the Falcons' Atlantic Hockey opener at the Mass Mutual Center.

It was a back and forth game that featured three ties, two in the 3^rd period, but AIC scored the final goal to take the 5-4 victory.

Bentley had taken a 4-3 lead with 5:08 remaining in regulation on Drew Best's (Plymouth, Mich.) shorthanded goal, in his first Bentley game. A two on one developed down the ice, but Best decided to keep it himself and fired a shot past AIC goalie Stefano Durante to the stick side.

The Yellow Jackets though tied it up with 2:07 remaining on a power play goal by Jared Pike.

The game carried on into overtime, where AIC won it on a broken play in front of the net that saw Mellberg chip the puck in among a scramble in front.

Earlier in the 3^rd period, Bentley took a 3-2 lead at 1:51 on a goal by junior Jake Kauppila (Gurnee, Ill.) after he fired in a rebound off a saved shot by Luke Santerno (Smithers, B.C.).

Bentley jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Drew Callin (Middleton, Wisc.) at 11:34 and defenseman Alexey Solovyev (Moscow, Russia) on the power play at 17:48. AIC chipped away with goals by Blake Christensen on the power play at 18:47 of the 1^st and Hugo Reinhardt at 13:06 of the 2^nd.

The second game of the series is Thursday night back at the Mass Mutual Center.