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Boston, Mass. -- Great players are expected to come up big in key situations. That is exactly what Bentley senior forward Brett Gensler did on Saturday night at Fenway Park as he led his team to a 3-2 win over Holy Cross in an Atlantic Hockey Association game played at Boston's beloved ballpark.
Gensler, a St. Charles, Mo. native, scored all three Bentley goals to register a hat trick, and in the process, extended Bentley's unbeaten streak to eight games. Gensler won the 2012 Walter Brown Award as the top American born player playing college hockey in New England.
Adam Schmidt got the scoring started for Holy Cross at the 10:43 mark of the first period with assists going to Shayne Stockton and Brett McKinnon.
Gensler scored a power play goal less than a minute later with a feed from star defenseman Steve Weinstein.
Just over five minutes into the second period Gensler struck again, this time set up by Matt Blomquist and Brett Switzer.
Holy Cross answered right back to even the score at two. Stockton scored on the man advantage on a pass from Tim Driscoll. Schmidt picked up the secondary assist for his second helper of the night.
Midway through the third period Gensler gave the Falcons the lead for good with a power play marker. Blomquist and Weinstein assisted on the game-winner. It was the 23rd assist of the season for the blue liner from Los Angeles, Calif.
Holy Cross goaltender Matt Ginn was tremendous, stopping 36 of the 39 shots faced. Bentley senior Branden Komm made 29 saves for the victory.
It was the second big victory in as many games on a big stage for Ryan Soderquist's club. Bentley defeated Boston University, 4-1, at Agganis Arena earlier this month. Bentley (9-7-1) returns to action next weekend when it hosts Niagara for a two-game set.
Jeff Cox covers college, junior and high school hockey, NCAA recruiting, NHL Draft prospects and the AHL for SBNation. Follow him on twitter @JeffCoxSBNation.