Waltham, Mass. – Senior goalie Aidan Pelino (Oakville, Ontario) made 24 saves and all three Bentley goals came on the power play as the Falcons defeated Holy Cross 3-2 on Friday night at Bentley Arena.

The Falcons clinched home-ice advantage in the next week's first round of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs with the victory.

Junior defenseman Matt Lombardozzi (Leominster, Mass.) had three assists on the night. Junior Brendan Hamblet (Hopkinton, Mass.) scored the first two goals, and junior Michael Zuffante (Bloomingdale, Ill.) netted the third goal.

Hamblet scored the first goal at 16:12 of the first period to give Bentley a 1-0 lead. Lombardozzi started with the puck just inside the blue line, and fed a pass down low to Ryner Gorowsky (Lino Lakes, Minn.). Gorowsky then found Hamblet in front, who lifted his shot over Holy Cross goalie Matt Radomsky to light the lamp.

Holy Cross got the only goal of the 2^nd period, off the stick of right wing Logan Ferguson, so the game went into the third period tied 1-1.

Lombardozzi then helped set up two power play goals in quick succession, in similar fashion. Hamblet's second goal came off a slap shot blast from the point that Radomsky made a pad save on, but Hamblet jammed home the rebound in front of the net to give the Falcons a 2-1 lead at 5:33 of the 3^rd period.

A Holy Cross penalty for slashing at 6:29 led to the third power play goal, this time by Zuffante. A slap shot by Lombardozzi from almost the same spot was saved by Radomsky, but Zuffante slammed home the rebound for his 5^th goal of the season. That gave Bentley a 3-1 lead with 12:55 to play.

Holy Cross pulled a goal back from right wing Pete Kessel to cut Bentley's lead to 3-2 with 7:36 to go. But Bentley saw the rest of the game out to secure the 3-2 victory.

Pelino made two big saves in the 3^rd period to help Bentley stay in front. First he denied center Conner Jean with 15:45 remaining, then made another big save on right wing Jake Pappalardo with 9:35 left. He also made a highlight reel glove save to deny Jean in the first period when Holy Cross was on the power play.

Bentley (12-13-2 AHA) will go for the series sweep tomorrow night when the series shifts to Worcester for the final game of the regular season.