An Air Force hockey win on Saturday would have clinched a first-round bye in the Atlantic Hockey postseason tournament. Instead, Mercyhurst goalie Max Strang made 50 saves, and the Lakers left town with a 2-1 victory, and a split of the weekend series. As a result, the Falcons still lead the conference, but six teams are withing three points of the lead going into the last week of the regular season.
Air Force has 34 points. RIT has 33. Mercyhurst, Niagara, and Bentley all have 32, and Holy Cross has 31.
Freshman Cole Gunner put Air Force up 1-0 9:22 into the first period, splitting two Laker players before sneaking his 5th of the season through the pads of Strang, who got some of the puck, but not enough to make the save.
In the second, Mercyhurst defenseman Nick Jones scored his 9th of the year on a power play shot that Falcon goalie Jason Torf never saw. It was the Lakers' only PP chance of the night. So the score was tied 1-1 after two, even though Air Force was dominating the shot total 32-12, and the positional play.
The game winner for Mercyhurst came at 6:25 of the third, when Laker forward Paul Chiasson picked up a loose puck near the blue line, and skated in to rip a cannon past Torf high on the glove side just under the crossbar.
The Falcons continues to press, and Strang made a great glove save on Stephen Carew with six minutes left, and he preserved the win from there. The shots ended up 51-19 for Air Force. But the Falcons were 0 for 5 on their power play, including one in the final three minutes.
Afterward Falcon head coach Frank Serratore credited Mercyhurst, and particularly Strang, "He was the best player on the ice by a country mile. Our effort was terrific. Couldn't ask our guys to work any harder. Their special teams were better than our special teams. Their penalty kill shut us down."
The Falcons overall record now stands at 16-8-7. They will wrap up the regular season by heading to Pittsburgh for two games against Robert Morris.
Blue Lines
Ryan Walters scored two third period goals to snap a 3-3 tie and propel Nebraska-Omaha to a 5-3 win at Colorado College. So those two split their weekend series. They both are once again tied for fourth place in the WCHA with 27 points, along with North Dakota. They are all three points behind third-place Denver, and three points ahead of seventh-place Michigan Tech. The Tigers will make their last regular season road trip next week to second-place Minnesota-Duluth.
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