Waltham, Mass. – Bentley University scored a late goal with an extra-attacker on the ice, but its rally fell short in a 5-3 defeat to visiting Holy Cross on Friday night at Bentley Arena.

With Bentley trailing 4-2 late in the 3^rd period, sophomore center Luke Santerno's (Smithers, B.C.) 2^nd goal of the night brought them to within 4-3 with 2:01 remaining. But Holy Cross was able to hang on the rest of the way, and an empty-net goal by Anthony Vincent with 36 seconds left sealed their 5-3 victory.

Bentley's record dropped to 14-9-2 in Atlantic Hockey, while Holy Cross improved to 9-13-3.

The teams skated to a 1-1 tie after the 1^st period. Holy Cross got on the board first, just 2:03 into the game, on a tip-in goal by Mitch Collett. But Bentley answered back at the 11:37 mark with a power play goal by Santerno, who finished off a nice passing sequence on the far side of the net after taking a cross-ice pass from Drew Callin (Middleton, Wisc.).

Bentley then went ahead 2-1 5:32 into the 2^nd period on junior Jake Kauppila's (Gurnee, Ill.) 6^th goal of the year. Kauppila and Matt Riggleman (Milford, Mich.) battled for the puck along the boards behind the net, and after Kauppila emerged with it, a second chance effort saw him put one past Holy Cross goalie Tommy Nixon for the goal.

Holy Cross though tied the game up about four minutes later with the first of its two power play goals on the night, this one from Kevin Darrar in a 5-on-3 situation with a slap shot from the point.

The Crusaders had a power play carry over from the 2^nd period to the 3^rd, and they struck 17 seconds into the final period with a goal by Logan Ferguson on the man-advantage with a shot that got through traffic in front of the net, for a 3-2 lead.

Darrar's second goal of the night at 9:59 pushed Holy Cross' lead to 4-2.

Nixon made 21 saves on the night to earn the win, while Bentley's Aidan Pelino (Oakville, Ontario) made 25 stops.

The series now shifts to Worcester for tomorrow night's game, which can be seen on NESN Plus at 7:05 pm.