WORCESTER, Mass. – Bentley won the first Atlantic Hockey Championship in program history with a 6-3 victory over Holy Cross at the Hart Center on Saturday night and earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Trailing 2-0 after the first period, the Falcons surged ahead with three straight goals in a span of just over four minutes in the second period.

Holy Cross tied the game 3-3 in third period but Bentley scored three unanswered again over the final 11-plus minutes to take home the championship.

Sam Duerr scored what was the game-winning goal at 9:16 of the third period with a shot from the blue line that got through traffic in front of the net.

A.J. Hodges padded the lead by scoring at 14:38 to give Bentley a 5-3 cushion. Kellan Hjartarson broke up a pass near Holy Cross' blue line and fed the puck over to Hodges who broke into the offensive zone down the right wing with speed for a two-on-one.

Hodges slid a pass to Hjartarson whose shot was saved by Thomas Gale but Hodges tapped in the rebound for the goal and a 5-3 lead.

Holy Cross then pulled Gale with five minutes remaining and trailing by two goals. But Bentley all but sealed the championship when Nik Armstrong-Kingkade scored an empty-netter from the defensive zone to make it 6-3.

Tournament Most Outstanding Player Connor Hasley made 17 saves to earn the win.

Hasley, along with Nick Bochen and Nike Armstrong-Kingkade were named to the All-Tournament team from Bentley.

It was a slow start for the Falcons who trailed 2-0 after a pair of power play goals by Holy Cross late in the 1^st period.

Bentley though surged ahead with three unanswered goals in just over four minutes in the second period.

Senior defenseman Tucker Hodgson started it with a goal from above the right faceoff dot after taking a cross-ice pass from David Helledy at 6:34.

Armstrong-Kingkade tied it a pinpoint wrist shot from the slot at 7:11, with Stephen Castagna and Bochen on the assists.

Kingkade was involved in the buildup to the third goal with a shot from the left wing that went wide of the net. Bochen grabbed the rebound along the right side boards, drove in on net and lifted a shot over Gale to give Bentley a 3-2 lead.

Holy Cross tied it 3-3 with a power play goal from Devin Phillips 6:53 into the third period, but a little under three minutes later Duerr put Bentley back in front.

Bentley earned Atlantic Hockey's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. They NCAA Selection Show is on Sunday at 3:00 PM.