Air Force endured a determined RIT comeback, ultimately winning the Atlantic Hockey showdown at Cadet Arena, 4-3, on Friday night.
Jordan Himley scored his second goal off a feed from Kyle Haak with just 1:13 to play to lift the Falcons.
The Falcons (5-3-1, 3-2 AHC) briefly led 3-0 early in the second period before the Tigers (3-6-1, 3-4 AHC) clawed back into the game.
“We never trailed, our goalie was good when he had to be and we found a way to win when we easily could have found a way to lose,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said.
Shane Starrett stopped 29 shots and Matt Serratore added two assists in a game that had 119 penalty minutes, including 85 for one sequence with 4:07 to go in the second period that saw RIT’s Shawn Cameron ejected.
Here were a few keys for Air Force:
Strong start
The Falcons had half of their 24 shots in the first period, when they took a 2-0 lead on nearly identical goals by Himley and Trevor Stone, the latter coming with just 14 seconds to go in the period. Haak picked up two of his three assists in the period. Both goals came off a strong forecheck and passes from below the goal line.
“We wanted a two-man hunting of the puck,” Haak said. “It was great to have guys in the slot to put it away.”
The Falcons clearly had more jump at the start.
“We executed well in the first period,” Haak added.
What happened?
Just 43 seconds after Tyler Rostenkowski had given the Falcons a 3-0 lead, RIT got back into it with Todd Skirving‘s tally.
The Tigers tied it on goals by co-captain Chase Norrish and Ryan Kruper in a 3:23 span midway through the third period.
“We took our foot off the gas a bit, and we’ve gotta fix it,” Himley said. “We relaxed with the lead and weren’t as aggressive.”
Speak up
Just when it appeared things could go south, or at least sideways, the Falcons pulled it together in the final 5 minutes.
“(Co-captain) Dylan Abood got everyone focused on the bench,” Haak said.
Added Himley, “It could have gotten real quiet, but our captain is always in our ear, always talking.”
After the Falcons failed to capitalize on their seventh power play , which ended with 2:06, to go, Haak found Himley mere feet from where he scored the opening goal.
“(Ben) Kucera was involved in the corner and he stalled enough for us to change two forwards,” Haak said. “I came away with the puck and Himley called for it.”
But he didn’t call his shot.
“I just shot it. The other guys did the work,” Himley said. “I just let it go. I thought it hit his body. We had a good push at the end, and we needed it.”
Next up
The teams meet again Saturday at 3 p.m. in a quick turnaround due to the football team’s matchup against Colorado State.
“We were out-special-teamed, we had too many unforced errors, we weren’t strong on our sticks,” Serratore said. “Thank God it went the way it did or it might have set us back. We’ve got to be better, especially our D core.”
