SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – American International defeated Bentley 6-2 in game two to win the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal series and advance to the semifinals.

AIC got an early jump in this game with two goals in the opening 2:37 to take a quick 2-0 lead. Grad student center Brian Rigali scored on the power play at the 1:38 mark to open the scoring. And just about a minute later junior left wing Blake Bennett scored to give AIC a two goal lead.

The Falcons though pulled one back when grad student defenseman Matt Lombardozzi (Leominster, Mass.) blasted in a slap shot from the blue line to make it a 2-1 game. Lombardozzi took an initial slap shot from the blue line that went wide and freshman Cooper Connell (West Vancouver, B.C.) retrieved the puck from behind the net.

Connell fed the puck back to Lombardozzi who fired a shot that beat AIC goalie Alec Calvaruso low and to the glove side.

That cut the deficit to 2-1 at the 7:24 mark.

But a little over four minutes later, AIC's Chris Dodero put them back ahead by two goals with his 11^th tally of the season.

In the second period, Bennett scored his second of the night with a power play goal at 9:11 to give AIC a 4-1 advantage.

The Falcons climbed to within 4-2 with about nine minutes gone in the 3^rd period on Lombardozzi's second goal of the night. An AIC holding penalty gave Bentley a power play, and 1:03 later a cross-checking penalty on the Yellow Jackets gave Bentley an extended two-man advantage.

They took advantage when Michael Zuffante (Bloomingdale, Ill.) fed a cross-ice pass to Lombardozzi, who was stationed above the right face-off circle. He one-timed Zuffante's pass over Calvaruso's glove for the goal, his 10^th of the season and 8^th power play goal.

That's as close as Bentley could get though. Junior right wing Austen Long scored at the 11:38 mark to give AIC a 5-2 lead and Bennett added an empty-net goal late for the final margin.