USAFA, Colo. – Air Force scored two power play goals, one in the first and period and one in the third, in a 5-2 win over Bentley University on Friday night at Cadet Ice Arena in Colorado. Defenseman Alexey Solovyev (Moscow, Russia/Lone Star) scored for the 4^th straight game for Bentley.

Air Force jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 3:26 on a power play goal by Evan Giesler. Bentley had a chance to respond with a 5-on-3 power play for over a minute that began at the 8:24 mark, but saw it go by the boards.

However, Bentley was able to cash in on its next power play chance as Solovyev scored for the 4^th straight game at the 15:58 mark. The defenseman ripped a slap shot from the blue line, and with Kyle Schmidt (Menomonee Falls, Wisc./Sioux City) providing traffic in front, the puck whistled past Air Force goalie Shane Starrett for the goal.

The 2^nd period belonged to Air Force as they got even-strength goals from Trevor Stone at 9:09 and Johnny Hbarobsky at 14:31. After Stone's goal, Schmidt was robbed on a break onto the net by Starrett, and Air Force led 3-1 after two periods.

Air Force went up 4-1 when Jonathan Kopacka netted a power play goal at 8:20 of the 3^rd period, but Bentley responded a few minutes later to trim the deficit back to two goals on a goal by freshman Jonathan Desbiens (Montreal, Quebec/West Kelowna). A centering pass by Ryan McMurphy (Broken Arrow, Okla./Tri-City) was batted in by Desbiens on the far post to make the score 4-2 at the 12:47 mark.

Bentley continued to press to cut into the deficit, but could not get any closer and Air Force held on to claim the series opener.

The two teams will be right back at it on Saturday night at 9:05 eastern as Bentley will look to split the series.