By Eric Russo
BOSTON GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

The Holy Cross men's hockey team was certainly not pleased to begin the season with four consecutive losses.

But three of those defeats came against Quinnipiac and defending national champion Providence, providing the Crusaders with valuable exposure to the game's elite, something that helped propel them into an impressive run of success.

Holy Cross is in the midst of a nine-game unbeaten streak (8-0-1) and has quickly scaled to the top of the Atlantic Hockey Association standings.

“We want to play challenging opponents and we want to win those games, but there's other things that you gain from that,” said second-year coach David Berard, whose Crusaders (12-6-1, 10-3-1) travel to Dartmouth on Sunday.

“And certainly I think we got a lot better in those first few weekends because of the quality of competition that we played and the environments we played in. It exposed our team to some things that maybe they wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise and I think all of that helped get us to where we are today.”

Go here to read the complete story in the Boston Globe.

To purchase tickets for the 2015-2016 Holy Cross men's hockey season, call 1-844-GOCROSS or visit GoHolyCross.com/Tickets.

There are numerous ways to stay connected with the Holy Cross men's hockey team. Follow the Crusaders on Twitter @HCrossMHockey, Facebook and Instagram.