Ryan Boldrey
After near misses each of the
last two seasons, the Air Force Fighting Falcons, by way of a 2-0
win over No. 1-seeded University of Michigan March 27 in
Bridgeport, Conn., are over the hump and onto the second round of
the NCAA Hockey Tournament.
Led by the unbelievable
goaltending of Andrew Volkening, who finished the game with 43
saves, thus increasing his shutout streak to 218 minutes and 8
seconds, Air Force (28-10-2) took down one of the most storied
programs in college hockey history to get there.
Michigan (29-12), whose nine
titles all-time trump all other programs in the sport, managed to
outshoot the cadets 43-13 on the afternoon, but could not find a
way to solve Volkening.
“I think shots [on goal] is the
most overrated stat going,” Air Force assistant coach Mike Corbett
told 1300 AM afterwards. “We didn’t give them a whole lot of
Grade-A opportunities. We had maybe four Grade-A opportunities of
our own on the day and we scored on two of them.”
The Wolverines, 0-for-7 on the
power play over the course of the game, found itself with a two-man
advantage in the first five minutes of the contest, but, as was a
sign of things to come, were unable to capitalize.
After fighting off the early
5-on-3, the Falcons had three power play opportunities of their own
in the next 10 minutes, and with just seconds remaining on the
final one, Derrick Burnett took a pass from Jeff Hajner at the top
of the right circle firing it across the vest of Michigan
goaltender Bryan Hogan and over his right shoulder, as he buried it
top shelf for the 1-0 lead with 4:42 remaining in the period.
Through 40 contests, entering the
tournament, the Wolverines had trailed just eight times after the
first period, winning but three of those.
As odds go, today proved to be no
different.
And two ticks past the seven
minute mark of the second the Falcons increased their lead to 2-0.
The speedy Matt Fairchild shook a Michigan defender along the right
side of the boards, creating a 2-on-1 situation. Fairchild drew the
lone Wolverine back to him, and then dumped a centering pass to an
all-alone Jacques Lamoureux, who beat Hogan, for his NCAA-leading
33rd goal of the season.
The shot was just Air Force’s
fifth of the day and all it would need to seal up its first-ever
NCAA tournament victory.
“It’s by far the biggest win in
the history of our program,” Volkening said to ESPNU. “We’ve never
been here before. It’s unchartered waters, but this is what we
wanted. This was one of our goals this year and we got it, so we’re
going to put our heads down and try to get another one
tomorrow.”
The No. 4-seeded Falcons will
face No. 3 Vermont (21-11-5), 4-1 winners over No. 2 Yale (24-8-2)
in the other East regional semifinal, at 4:30 p.m. MST March 28 in
Bridgeport, with a trip to the Frozen Four in Washington D.C. on
the line. The game will be televised locally on ESPNU.