Atlantic Hockey championship: Holy Cross battles Bentley for long-awaited NCAA berth

It's tough to find two hotter teams in the last month of the season than Bentley and Holy Cross.

Across 24 games since the start of February, they combined to lose just four, and one of those was in a head-to-head matchup.

Both teams have long NCAA tournament droughts they hope to overcome, and the winner of the Atlantic Hockey title game, this Saturday at 7:05 p.m. Eastern, will break that streak by punching their ticket.

For top-seeded Holy Cross, this opportunity has felt like the culmination of years of work from head coach Bill Riga, who took over the program in 2021. They have jumped from 12 wins, to 17, to 21, and now 24, and won the Atlantic Hockey regular-season title for the first time since 2006. That year, as in 2004, they won both that trophy and the postseason title. Now, Riga's