After watching their 13 game win streak come to a halt at Denver
on Nov. 29, No. 10 Air Force was looking to start a new streak when
they entertained Rochester Institute of Technology at Cadet Ice
Arena Dec. 5 and Dec. 6.
The streak lasted one night.
After the Falcons (14-2, 11-1) pulled out a 2-0 win on Dec. 5,
they found themselves blowing a 2-1 lead with two minutes remaining
in the third period and falling 3-2 in overtime to the visiting RIT
Tigers (6-9-1, 5-4-1) on Dec. 6 as they dropped their second game
in three outings.
To say the Falcons came out flat against RIT the first night
would be an understatement. Air Force went 0-3 on the power play in
the first period and managed just one shot on goal in the first 20
minutes, helping the Tigers establish a new school record for least
shots allowed in a period. The shot, a wrister from Paul
Weisgarber, came on a two-on-one breakaway 17:10 into the period
but did not find its way past RIT goaltender Jared Demichiel.
The good thing for Air Force was that the defense showed up
strong. Both Greg Flynn and Kevin Wright had huge deflections
around the cage and junior goaltender Andrew Volkening stopped all
eight RIT shots that made it through.
According to senior forward Mike Phillipich, the players had a
meeting of the minds at the first intermission. From there the
Falcons came out with three shots on goal in the first 20 seconds
of the second and finished with a total of 18 shots in the period,
none bigger than a power play tally from Phillipich that sent them
into the second break up 1-0 as Volkening’s save total grew to
15.
“We came out lackluster to say the least,” Phillipich said. “But
I give credit to our opponent in that they came out hard and ready
to play. Our goaltender played amazing and that kept us in the
game.”
The Falcons added one more goal on a two-on-one breakaway in the
third as Greg Olson sent a smoldering outlet pass from in front of
his own net to the Tiger’s blue line where Jacques Lamoureux picked
it up, drew the defender in and found Josh Frider who deposited it
into a wide-open net.
Air Force held off a few late RIT rallies as Volkening picked up
the eighth shutout of his career, stopping a season-high 30 shots
en route to the 2-0 Air Force victory.
“I thought they out-competed us,” head coach Frank Serratore
said. “They won the lion’s share of the stick battles and the
one-on-one battles and they probably deserved a better fate. When
it was all said and done our goalie was better than their
goalie.”
On night two, RIT got that better fate. The Tigers took a 1-0
lead just 3:58 into the game and the score held up until the
Falcon’s leading scorer, Lamoureux found the back of the net for
the first time in eight games knotting the game at 1 with just 42
seconds left in the second.
22 seconds into the third, Jeff Hajner put in the go-ahead goal
electrifying the Falcon crowd. Air Force had numerous chances
throughout the third to put the game away, including more than
three minutes of five-on-three hockey, but came up short time and
time again.
The Tigers made them pay with two minutes to go when Brennan
Sarazin scored the game-tying goal and Andrew Favot finished things
off for RIT on a breakaway with 38 seconds remaining in
overtime.
“We had a lot of chances, but when you let teams like that hang
around, things like this happen,” Lamoureux said afterwards. “It
leaves a pretty sour taste in your mouth. Obviously 14-2 is a great
record, but I think for us we definitely didn’t want to lose our
last game going into the break, especially the way we did.
“Hopefully the guys will dwell on this a little bit over the
break and come back refreshed and ready to work in the second half
because it’s going to be tough. Other teams are going to come in
here playing the same way.”
Serratore had a tough time finding any good to take from the
loss.
“I don’t think you learn anything from losing. The only thing
you learn from losing is losing…, but you get what you pay for, you
get what you deserve and you’re not going to win too many games
scoring just two goals. It was a gut-wrenching loss and I wish I
could blow them off a little quicker but I can’t.”
Serratore will have a few weeks to put this one behind him. The
Falcons don’t play again until Dec. 29 when they face Connecticut
in a league contest on the road that also doubles as part of the
Toyota UCONN Classic. They will not return home until they host
Canisius Jan. 16 and 17.
With the loss the Falcons were expected to drop in both major
polls. They remain in first place in the AHA with 22 points, 11
points ahead of five different teams tied for second.