One night after a catastrophic loss to first-place RIT, Air Force and goaltender Guy Blessing showed their resilience to gain an Atlantic Hockey split on Saturday.

Blessing made 41 saves and freshman defenseman Owen Baumgartner scored two goals, including the winner with 7:18 to play in regulation. Parker Brown added a power-play strike for the Falcons (16-17-1, 13-10-1 AHA).

The win kept AFA in position to secure a top-five spot in the AHA playoffs. That would mean a first-round bye. If the Falcons can climb past AIC, they could finish fourth and host the Yellowjackets in a quarterfinal series on March 8-10.

It also marked the second consecutive Saturday that the Falcons bounced back from a Friday dud for a stellar Saturday. Last weekend, they shut out second-place Sacred Heart in the second game.

Falcons Flip Friday’s Script

Air Force course-corrected after a disastrous 7-3 loss on Friday in which almost everything that could go wrong did.

Blessing was pulled after allowing three goals on five shots — including two breakaways to Carter Wilkie while the Falcons were on a five-minute power play. In fairness to the junior netminder, none of the goals was entirely on him.

The Tigers (20-10-2) dominated the game in every phase, including energy.

Blessing kept Air Force in Saturday’s game, making huge saves every period. He set the tone in the first when both teams had the afterburners on. Several times Blessing had to — and did — stop shots from in close. Blessing sustained that in the third, when the Falcons retook the lead on Baumgartner’s give-and-go with fellow newcomer Brendan Gibbons.

Air Force Style Game

Another significant difference was the Falcons scored first on Saturday. On Friday, The Tigers stormed to a 4-0 lead in the first 20:21 of game time.

Air Force battled back to cut the lead in half thanks to Holt Oliphant and Gibbons, but RIT then sandwiched two power-play goals around the second intermission to remove any doubt.

Baumgartner’s rush put the Falcons up 3:34 in the second. The Tigers, however, took a 2-1 lead into the third thanks to goals by Matthew Wilde and Grady Hobbs.

Air Force regrouped, and Brown’s 5-on-3 power-play goal tied it just 2:49 into the third. Baumgartner’s winner came 10 minutes later.

Notes: One night after Brian Adams skated in his 100th NCAA game, fellow senior Sam Brennan played in his. … Air Force closed the regular season with a series against 10th-place Robert Morris at Cadet Arena next weekend. The Colonials fell to Canisius 5-4 in overtime on Saturday. … Air Force and RIT each went 1-for-3 on the power play on Saturday. … Co-captain Luke Rowe did not play due to an undisclosed injury.

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