What does Air Force coach Frank Serratore have to say about last weekend’s games as well as the upcoming ones? Plenty. So we asked, and he told us earlier this week.
Fasten your seatbelt and make sure the chinstrap is tight for the inaugural edition of Frank Talk.
The refereeing was noticeably tighter last weekend. How did that affect the games at the Ice Breaker Tournament?
Everyone’s antennas are up. The officials’ antennas are up because they’ve been told by their supervisors they need to call the rule book. Generally the pendulum swings from the extreme left to the extreme right. And where we need the dial to be is somewhere in the middle. Just like politics in America. Not too far to the left, not too far to the right. Somewhere between the 40s I’d like to say. That’s where the majority of Americans are, and that’s where the hockey players and coaches want it to be (with refs).
What is the impact of winning the Ice Breaker against such a strong field, with two top-five teams at the time (No. 3 Denver and No. 5 Boston College) and Ohio State?
(On Ohio State being disregarded by some) When you’re picked second in the Big Ten, and people can say what they want about the Big Ten. In a conference where you have the Minnesota Gophers and the Michigan Wolverines and you’re picked second ahead of one of those guys, you’ve got some horses in the stable. In terms what it means to our program. It’s a great feather in your cap to win a tournament with a field like that. We went in there and we fully expected to win the tournament, we did. I told our parents group that when they had a get together before the Friday afternoon game.
From a team standpoint, experience-wise we were there. We had experience at every position and there was no reason (we couldn’t win). Basically, Steve Miller said, “Why not us?” I fully agree with him. The challenge we put toward the team was to use this as a simulation of an NCAA Regional. To get to the Frozen Four, we’re going to have to win a regional like this. When you look at the teams that were there, those four teams could very easily be a regional. And a pretty damn strong regional.
What have you and the staff been working with the team on this week?
The power play. Our goaltender and penalty killing (12 for 12) won it for us. Those go hand in hand because your goaltender has to be your best penalty killer. Until they figure out a different way to win games if you’ve got the best player at the rink and that player happens to be a goalie, you’ve got a chance every night.
What do we need to get better at? Our power play’s got to get better (It was 2 for 14, or 14 percent for the weekend). Defensively we’ve got to get better. We gave up way too many shots on Saturday night. Those are two noteworthy things we’re going to try to make immediate improvements on. … If the refs are going to call it the way they did this weekend, you better be able to kill penalties and you better be able to score power-play goals. Defensively, we’ve got a better team than to give anyone 49 shots.
Why did you put Tyler Ledford out there first in the shootout?
Because we needed to score. We were home team so decided to defend because we felt we had the best player in the tournament in our goal. We wanted him to be able to deal with the pressure. You put it in the hands of your best player. (Shane) Starrett is our best player and we fully expected him to make that save. Then our next best player is Tyler Ledford and we fully expected to score. Everybody on our bench knew what he was going to do. He’s got that dirty little move where he stickhandles back and forth and it ends up on his forehand. Unless a goalie knows what he’s doing, I don’t care who it is, they’re not going to stop that shot. That was YouTube material.
What are your all-time favorite Halloween costumes?
I like the All State Mayhem guy and that Progressive woman, Flo. I guess I have insurance on my mind.
Have you dressed up as the Mayhem guy?
No.
@AFAFlightPath
