Air Force rebounded from a mediocre Thursday performance with a dominant one Friday to garner an important league split with a 5-1 win over Holy Cross.

“I am more relieved that anything,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said. “For us to contend and be where we need to be at the end of the season, we cannot give away four (Atlantic Hockey Conference standings) points at home. We need to get points in every series.”

Air Force clinched the victory during a decisive 13 seconds in the second period. Freshman goalie Shane Starrett (21 saves) made a big-time stop on a power-play breakaway for Holy Cross captain Matt Vidal. Seconds later, Falcons sophomore Tyler Ledford collected the bouncing puck in the neutral zone to jump-start a breakaway.

Ledford skated into the left faceoff circle and fired a crossing pass to Matt Serratore, who scored with 7:27 left for a shorthanded score from the right circle and a 3-0 lead. AFA killed off that power play, including a span of 38 seconds of 5-on-3, and the Falcons (3-6-1, 2-3-1 AHC) were in control for good.

“If they get that power-play goal it is like a punch in the gut,” Serratore said. “Shane has been very good for us. Our penalty kill has been outstanding.”

“We get that save and the puck bounces out to Leddy (Ledford) and he makes a perfect pass to Matt (Serratore). We had our legs and played with jump all night.”

Air Force took an early lead when junior A.J Reid ripped a wrister two strides into the Holy Cross zone to beat goalie Paul Berrafato (27 saves) low and to the right. The unassisted tally, his first goal this season, came with 11:40 left in the first period.

“Our goalie has been playing well for us so we knew we needed to get him more support,” Reid said.

Another key was a good special teams performance with a shorthanded goal and two power-play tallies, a major improvement over a 1 for 27 mark with the man advantage entering Friday’s game. That record was last in Division 1.

“Everyone has seen our power-play numbers so to get two goals was a great way to get that monkey off our backs,” Reid said.

Serratore said it was a matter of time.

“Our power play has been creating good pressure so we knew those goals were going to come eventually,” Serratore said.

Ice chips

There was a moment of silence before the game for the victims of the Paris attacks. . This is the first game Air Force has won when outshooting its opponent. The Falcons are now 1-5 in those instances. . Seventeen of the past 19 games between the two league foes have been decided by two goals or less.