In a penalty-filled affair, Findlay grabbed a 2-0 lead on a pair of Jason Maxwell goals in the first period but watched Army rally to even the contest with two second-period tallies.

Just 37 seconds into the third period Army's Joe Carpenter was whistled for a hooking infraction, and 14 seconds later Ben Patey redirected a shot from the point past Corey Winer for the game-winning goal.

With the four-point win, Findlay (9-20, 4-13) temporarily moved into fourth place in the CHA with 10 points. Air Force, which hosts Bemidji State in a four-point game on Saturday night, is in fifth place with six points, while Army (12-16-2, 0-7-0) is in sixth place with no points. Only the top five teams qualify for next month's CHA tournament.

Maxwell opened the scoring for the Oilers when he danced around two Army defenders and shoveled the puck past Winer 11:04 into the contest.

Later in the period, Troy Martin intercepted a pass in the Army zone and fed Maxwell on the doorstep for a power-play goal and a 2-0 lead.

But Army came roaring back in the middle frame, starting with Mike Fairman's power-play blast from the top of the left circle at 7:32. The goal was Fairman's team-leading 19th of the season.

The Cadets tied it at 14:05 of the second when Carpenter, just out of the penalty box, gathered a drop pass from Nathan Mayfield and unleashed a blistering slapshot that beat VandeSpyker to the short side.

Following Patey's go-ahead goal in the initial moments of the third period, Army dominated play. The Cadets had scoring chance after scoring chance, but VandeSpyker denied them every time. His best stop came with 7:27 left to play, when he stoned Tim Fisher from point-blank range with a spectacular glove save.

The Oilers added some insurance with 3:20 to play, when Darcy Parsons was able to break free with Army's defensemen squeezing in. He skated down the left side and lifted a backhander past Winer for an insurmountable 4-2 lead. Army's net was empty for the final 1:41, but the Cadets could not dent the net, even with the extra attacker.

Army outshot Findlay 16-7 in the final period and 47-23 in the game, but the Cadets could only skate away with a frustrating loss, their fourth in a row.

Findlay, which had dropped 11 of its last 12 contests, racked up 68 minutes in penalties and had three players ejected, including two who will have to sit out Saturday night's game. Andy Croak went off on a major penalty for spearing Eric Joyce late in the second period, and Steve Traver retaliated for a hit on his goaltender and took a fighting major and the automatic disqualification.

Army had 36 penalty minutes for a total of 104 handed out in the game. The Cadets were 1-for-9 on the power play and Findlay 2-for-8.

The two teams meet again on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Tate Rink.