Olson's game-winner was especially heartbreaking for the Cadets, who just minutes earlier had come storming back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game. Army needed to sweep the two-game series from its archrivals to earn a College Hockey America tournament berth. Instead the Falcons ran their series-long unbeaten string over the Cadets to seven games (6-0-1) dating back to 1996-97.

Air Force (17-16-2, 5-10-0 CHA) secured the fourth seed at next week's CHA tourney and will battle No. 5 Findlay in the opening round.

A mistake by a young Army defenseman helped Air Force grab a 1-0 lead 11:47 into the contest. Freshman Kevin Emore, playing in just his third varsity contest, mishandled the puck in his own zone and Brian Rodgers gathered it in and flipped a shot past Corey Winer.

Army controlled play for much of the second period, outshooting the Falcons 14-7, but towering goaltender Marc Kielkucki kept the Cadets off the scoreboard.

Scott Bradley scored what appeared to be a backbreaking second goal for Air Force 10:03 into the third period when he tipped in a diagonal pass from Andy Berg, but the Cadets mounted a comeback moments later thanks in part to some Air Force penalties.

Just 1:28 after Bradley's goal, Bobby Pate went off on an interference call, and Mike Keough took a roughing penalty to give Army 1:17 worth of five-on-three time. The Cadets needed only 27 seconds of it, though, as defenseman Joe Carpenter walked in to the right faceoff circle and fired a shot that redirected off a defender's skate past Kielkucki to make it 2-1 with 7:19 to play.

Air Force killed off the remaining penalty time, but at 14:59 Joe Dudek nudged a pass from behind the net out front to a wide-open Tim Fisher, who scored his fourth goal in the last two games and 14th of the season, bringing the large gathering to its feet.

Army's momentum subsided, however, when K.C. Finnegan, standing just to the right of his own crease, caught a pop fly out of the air and threw it out of his zone, drawing a delay-of-game penalty. Winer thwarted one Air Force power-play chance when Nels Grafstrom walked in alone with 1:17 left in regulation, but exactly two minutes after the Finnegan penalty Olson took a cross-ice pass from Jace Anders, skated to the right circle and fired a shot just under the crossbar for a 3-2 Falcon lead.

The goal was Olson's second straight game-winner, coming just six days after he scored in overtime to give Air Force a crucial four-point win over Bemidji State.

Bradley netted his second goal of the night with the Army net empty and 14 seconds left.

Army outshot Air Force 36-27 in the game but fell to 13-17-2 overall, 1-8-0 in the CHA.

Kielkucki made 34 saves for Air Force and Winer 23 for the Cadets.

Air Force took a 16-11-2 lead in the all-time series, but this was the teams' first-ever meeting as conference mates.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday night at Tate Rink at 7 p.m. It will be the final game of the season for Army, while Air Force will be tuning up for the CHA Tournament, which starts next Friday in Huntsville, Ala.