As statements go, this one by Air Force was pretty strong.
The Falcons bounced back from an uneven weekend at Arizona State, defeating Bentley, 5-2, in their home opener Friday night as five players scored goals and nine had points.
Air Force pressured Bentley all over the ice, dominated in the face-off circle and used three consecutive goals from midway through the second period until midway through the third to ensure the outcome.
“We played with great energy, with great vigor,” coach Frank Serratore said on the radio post game show. “You have to play hard hockey. It was great to see or energy level back. That’s our foundation. That’s a good hockey team, they’re going to win a lot of games.
“The second period we took it over a little bit. Third period we didn’t sit on it. I liked our approach, we had to battle through it.”
Shane Starrett made 25 saves, and AFA fired 36 shots at Bentley’s Jason Argue, who kept the outcome from getting really out of hand in the second period.
“Their guy made some terrific saves, too,” Serratore said. “I thought Shane was superb.”
Power surge
Just 3 for 25 with a man advantage coming into the game, Air Force showed a marked improvement by going 2 for 5 against Bentley. Forward Evan Geisler gave AFA its first lead 3:26 in, and defenseman Jonathan Kopacka extended its lead to 4-1 midway through the third period.
Serratore and his staff decided to play the regular lines rather than have specific units on the power play.
“We were concerned about our foundation, relentless pursuit, forechecking, hunting pucks, funneling pucks, going low to high,” he said. “We just went with our lines. All of our fancy dance on our opportunities before, we didn’t get anything. We kept the same mindset throughout process, the same mentality, get low to high, get a net-front presence. We don’t have a power-play unit right now. We’re just going with our guys.”
Balanced attack
Four AFA players had multiple-point games. Forward Kyle Haak capped the game with an empty-net goal to go with two assists. Kopacka had a goal and an assist, and forwards Jordan Himley and Matt Serratore added two assists apiece. Defenseman Johnny Hrabovsky also scored a goal.
Note
Air Force helped itself in the face-off circle, winning 41 of 62 draws (66 percent). Haak led the way, taking 15 of 21.
@AFAFlightPath
