WORCESTER, Mass. – Bentley won its Atlantic Hockey opener over Holy Cross on the road 4-2 on Thursday night at the Hart Center. Four different players scored and sophomore goaltender Nicholas Grabko (Channahon, Ill.) made 24 saves in the win.

Bentley led 3-2 going into the final 20 minutes, and the game stayed that way until the final whistle with Grabko making 13 saves in the 3^rd period.

Grabko's final save of the night was his biggest. With Holy Cross having the extra attacker on the ice, Tyler Ghirardosi had a shot from point blank range for the tying goal, only for Grabko to deny him with a pad save.

An empty-net goal by junior Matt Gosiewski (Wilton, Conn.) off a face-off in the neutral zone with three seconds left sealed the win.

Despite Bentley having the majority of possession and shots in the early going, Holy Cross jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the opening 6:54 on goals by Matt Guerra at 5:51 and then Lucas Thorne at 6:54.

But Bentley responded, as a pair of freshmen defensemen scored their first career goals to tie the score 2-2 before the period was over.

Tanner Main (Welland, Ontario) scored at 13:56 for his first career goal. Gosiewski won an offensive zone face-off on the left circle and played the puck back to Main, who scored from just inside the blue line.

Tucker Hodgson (Grand Forks, N.D.) then scored his first career goal with 1:10 left in the period. After the puck was dug out of the corner, Brendan Hamblet (Hopkinton, Mass.) found Hodgson in the slot with a backhand pass for the goal.

A tripping penalty on Holy Cross 28 seconds into the 2^nd period led to sophomore Drew Bavaro (Bradenton, Fla.) scoring a power play goal just 18 seconds later to put the Falcons in front 3-2. They worked the puck around first from Phil Knies (Phoenix, Arizona) and then to Hamblet down low.

Hamblet then passed back to Bavaro in the high slot. With room to operate, Bavaro got off a wrist shot that beat Radomsky to give Bentley the 3-2 lead.

That's the way the game finished as the Falcons win their second in a row and third in four games.

They will go for the series sweep when the series shifts to Bentley Arena on Saturday at 4:05 pm.