One night after Air Force repeatedly rallied to tie No. 18 Western Michigan, the Broncos’ large, talented core of forwards proved too much for the Falcons on Saturday night at Kalamazoo.
Freshman Wade Allison scored his sixth goal of the season and sophomore Matheson Iacopelli added his 11th and 12th tallies to spark the Broncos (7-3-2) to a dominant 4-1 victory over the Falcons (6-4-2).
“There’s not much to feel bad about. Our guys came out and put their best foot forward,” AFA coach Frank Serratore said. “That is a big, strong, fast team. We haven’t been manhandled like that in a long time.”
Evan Giesler scored his second goal in two games, pulling the Falcons into a 1-1 tie with 1.:08 left in the first period. Evan Feno controlled the puck deep and fed Giesler in the slot.
The Broncos took over from there, outshooting AFA 36-11 the rest of the way en route to a 47-19 edge.
Billy Christopoulos made 43 saves for Air Force.
“Billy was our best player,” Serratore said. “Usually Shane (Starrett) is our best player, so it’s nice to know we have two good goalies.”
Another bright spot for the Falcons was their penalty kill went 7 for 7, and was particularly strong in the second period when Air force took four penalties in an 11-minute span.
Keeping it close
Despite the disparity in shots and face-offs (WMU led that category 41-29), Air Force was down just 2-1 going into the third period.
“We were where we wanted to be going into the third, down by a goal,” Serratore said. “If we win a period we’re in the money. We desperately needed a bounce, needed a break, needed a goal.
“They just plain and simple wore us down.”
Notable
The Falcons made three changes to their lineup, four counting Christopoulos making his second start of the season. Defenseman Jonathan Kopacka returned in place of fellow junior Dylan Abood. Up front, freshmen Trevor Stone and Erich Jaeger stepped in in place of freshmen Brady Tomlak and Pierce Pluemer. …
The Falcons play host to No. 1 Denver on Friday before heading down I-25 on Saturday to play Colorado College. The game at CC starts an hour earlier than usual for a Saturday, 6:05 p.m.
