Nervous time became winning time for Air Force on Saturday night, and in the process the Falcons positioned themselves well in the Atlantic Hockey race.

Air Force (18-8-4, 15-5-2 AHC) overcame two third-period penalty kills and scored three goals in 2:38 span in the closing minutes to defeat Bentley, 5-1, and sweep a crucial road series at Watertown, Mass.

Tyler Ledford scored 11 seconds after Air Force killed off a boarding penalty to Kyle Haak, and Jordan Himley and Phil Boje added scores 34 second apart in the final 1:02 to extend the Falcons winning streak to four. Freshman Erich Jaeger gave Air Force 1-0 lead midway through the first period, and Haak’s third goal of the weekend restored a one-goal lead with 7:32 to play in the second.

“We came in and we played a pretty darn good game,” AFA coach Frank Serratore told AM 1300’s Jay Ritchie after the game. “We’ve had some awfully good road teams in my tenure, but these guys have something special going here. If you have the ability to win on the road, and come from behind, if you have that ability you can go a long way.

“And we have two goalies who have shown the ability to make the big saves, the timely saves.”

Shane Starrett made 27 saves for Air Force, and continued an incredible run. The sophomore has allowed more than two goals just once – vs. Canisius on Jan. 13 – since the first weekend in December – a span of 12 starts.

The victory moved Air Force to one point of Canisius for the Atlantic Hockey lead. However, the Falcons have one game in hand with six to go.

“We’ve got a great race coming. We picked up points on everybody this weekend,” Serratore said.

A big part of Air Force’s ability to build their current win streak, which came after a 1-2-1 run vs. the Golden Griffins and Robert Morris, which followed a 6-0 streak, has been its ability to close out games. The Falcons did it two nights in a row against Army West Point last weekend, and they answered the call again Saturday night.

“We’re killing penalties at the key times at the end of games,” Serratore said. The good news is we’re not letting these things rattle us. We’re coaching the situation and the players are playing the situation.

“When we got the penalty at the end, one of the players on the bench said, ‘It’s time to do what we do.’ We’re steady. We have good structure. We’re competing well. It’s making us a resilient team.”

Evan Giesler added two assists, and Johnny Hrabovsky, Erik Baskin, Brady Tomlak and Evan Feno added helpers for the second night in a row. A.J. Reid, who had two goals Friday, also had an assist.That made it two nights in a row that Air Force had at least 10 players make the scoresheet.

With that sort of balance and the type of resilience they’re showing, the sky is the limit.

“If you can win two games against Bentley in this building, you can win two games against anyone anywhere, that’s how tough it is,” Serratore said.

Training room updates

Junior forward Ben Kucera returned to the Air Force lineup. Though not 100 percent, the Falcons’ leading goal scorer from a season ago might not have had lots of choice in the matter.

“We lost Pierce Pluemer on the last play of the game (Friday) night,” Serratore said. “To lose a guy on the last shift of a 6-1 game …”

The coach was optimistic sophomore forward Matt Serratore (concussion) could return to the lineup soon. The extent of Pluemer’s injury was not disclosed. Forward Matt Pulver (shoulder surgery) is out for the season and defensemen Jonathan Kopacka (broken ankle) and Joe Tyran (knee) likely are done for the season.

By the numbers

Haak extended his team lead in points with his fourth point in three games. He has 25 overall. … His linemate Himley continued his second-half goal-scoring tear. He capped his three-point weekend with his sixth goal in the past five weekends. … But the Falcons’ hottest scorer has been Ledford, who has eight points in the past six games after having nine in his first 23. Tomlak is right behind him with seven in that stretch after having eight in his first 20 games.