It was truly Friday the 13th for the Bentley hockey team and fans, as Mike Phillipich scored a short-handed goal with one second left in the third, lifting No. 20 Air Force to a 3-2 win over the “other” Falcons, in an important Atlantic Hockey game for both teams, in Watertown, Mass.
After a scoreless first period of play, Bentley scored two goals in a span of just over three minutes to take a 2-0 lead seven minutes into the second. Air Force answered less than a minute later however, cutting the deficit to 2-1 as Jacques Lamoureux took a pass from behind the cage and netted his NCAA leading 24th goal of the season.
The Falcons remained down 2-1 until, with 3:50 left in the third, Tim Kirby blasted a one-timer past Bentley goaltender Joe Calvi for his first career goal, knotting things up at 2-2.
Brent Olson was then issued a five-minute major for cross checking with 1:33 to go in the period, putting Bentley on the power play.
Bentley kept the puck in the Air Force zone nearly the entire time, but with 10 seconds left the Falcons were able to clear the puck and Matt Fairchild sped past two Bentley skaters, took the puck behind the net and centered it to Phillipich, who went five-hole for the victory, with just one tick left on the clock.
“Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good and tonight we were lucky,” head coach Frank Serratore said. “Fairchild is so dangerous on the penalty kill. He might be the best short-handed threat in the nation.”
Air Force would not be as lucky the second night, as Bentley stumped them 4-1 on Feb. 14, and with no thanks to an RIT victory, the Falcons slipped into second place, one point behind the Tigers with just four games remaining for each team. Those four games include a season-ending series between the two clubs Feb. 27 and 28 in New York that will likely decide the league.
Air Force (20-8-2, 17-5-2 AHA) jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 13 seconds into the game on Lamoureux’ 25th of the year, but Bentley (16-13-1, 14-9-1) responded from there, taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, adding a third goal in the second and then finishing things off with an empty-netter at the end of the third.
Serratore said he was pleased with the effort from his Falcons, but credited Bentley with solid play all weekend. “They just compete so dang hard,” he said. “They are definitely a legit top-four team in our league and will be a tough out come playoff time. We got out special-teamed by them, and they destroyed us in face-offs all weekend… They were very good at the little things and we were not.
“In an ordinary circumstance a split right here would be an acceptable outcome, but we are playing high-stakes poker with RIT for a league championship and every point is extremely important.”
Following the weekend, RIT leads the AHA standings with 37 points, while Air Force sits in second at 36. Mercyhurst is in third with 31 and Bentley is fourth with 29.
Canisius is right on the heels of Bentley with 28 points, in an important race to finish in the top four, as the top four teams will all not only receive a first-round bye in the AHA playoffs, but also host the quarterfinal round.
Air Force, along with RIT, has already clinched home ice in the playoffs, and will play its final regular season home series Feb. 20 and 21 against Holy Cross. Tickets for both Holy Cross games as well as the playoffs, a best-of-three series to be held March 13-15, are available at www.goairforcefalcons.com.