Every so often The Flight Path participates in Air Force coach Frank Serratore’s weekly news conference. This week he talked about the hard-fought sweep of Army West Point, what he expects to be a difficult series at Bentley, the Atlantic Hockey race and the Falcons’ injury situation.

Here are some of the highlights:

On the difference between the Canisius and Army series. AFA swept Army but went 0-1-1 vs. Canisius, which is tied with the Falcons for first place in AHC:

We played Canisius two weeks ago and put 80 shots on them in two games. And what was the difference between those games and how things went Saturday or even every goal we scored on Friday? Every goal we scored (vs. Army) except for one was generated by our defense. Pucks are going to hit something, a stick or a leg. Are they hitting sticks and legs and going wide of the net or are they hitting sticks and legs and finding the net. I think it’s a matter of luck. … We got a couple of fortuitous bounces that went past an excellent goaltender that we didn’t get against Canisius. If you carry the play and you’re pitching more than you’re catching, and you’re throwing a volume of shots through, eventually you’re going to manufacture some luck just through sheer volume. Things went our way.

On the tight finishes to both games against Army:

They got a couple of calls at the end of both games. We had a goal disallowed on a quick whistle in the first game. They get a goal that was disallowed that the referees they end up overturning to make it 3-2 plus they had 6-on-4s on both nights at the end of the game. The way it all turned out I wouldn’t change a thing because we grew a lot from that experience, having to overcome that.

I was real pleased with our bench, the coaching staff, the composure. The coaching staff prepared the guys for the situation. We just said, “If this doesn’t go our way we’re 6 on 4, and we can’t be running around 6 on 4. We’re going to have to pack it in like we do 5 on 3. … We’re going to have to cover the back doors, cover the flanks.” I’m so proud of how we played (one shot on goal, blocked five). We melted that two minutes away. … If you have chaos on the bench, you’re yelling, you’re not preparing yourself as a player for that situation. As a coach you’re not preparing your players for that situation. Real proud of Andy and Joe at that time.

Anybody who was at those games, if that didn’t get your heart pumping, you don’t have a heart. People who were at those games are going to be back.

On five of the Falcons’ six non-goalie reserves were not available due to injury Saturday night: 

I don’t want to say we’re devastated with injuries, but right now we’re potentially looking at one extra player for our trip. We lose Matt Serratore (Friday), he’s a huge player for us, takes a regular shift, plays 4 on 4, plays power play, plays penalty kill. We lose him for Saturday night and put in Eric Jaeger, a young freshman. We don’t have (Ben) Kucera, our leading goal scorer a year ago. We have all our freshman playing for the most part. (Freshman Matt Pulver had shoulder surgery this week, and junior defenseman Jonathan Kopacka has a broken ankle).

On the playoff atmosphere at Cadet Arena:

We played hard the entire weekend and got rewarded, and it could have gone the other way, especially when you’ve got a goalie like (Army’s Parker) Gahagen. A bunch of NHL teams came in and watched him play; I hope they noticed the guy in the other net (Shane Starrett).

The biggest difference on Friday was all the cadets in the building because young people bring energy, you feel the energy. There was a little extra energy in the building on Friday because we had a pile of cadets in there. … The games this weekend had the feel of a playoff game. A playoff game can end 1-0, that’s just the way they are. When they scored that first goal (Saturday), Army took the crowd out of it. When (Dan) Bailey scored that first goal, the building came alive. And the next goal it came more alive, and from that point on you could feel it.

On the Atlantic Hockey race:

I think it’s a little early (to hand Air Force one of Atlantic Hockey’s top spots). God forbid we get swept this weekend and Army sweeps Canisius and it’s a mess again. We’re going in against a team that of all the teams in the league we don’t match up great with Bentley. They’re home ice environment is the biggest advantage in the league right now. It’s a tough, tough place to go into, and we’re going in there shorthanded. We’ll see after this weekend.

On the Falcons’ resilience:

We use all our guys. We’re a four-line, six-D team. As a team over the years we’ve been fortunate. You either find ways to win games or find ways to let them get away. … That adversity we had against Army, we overcame that. The next time we’re in that situation, you don’t think we’re going to overcome it? The only way you develop that confidence is by working your way through that situation.

On what goaltender Shane Starrett brings to the team beyond the obvious: 

I love him. A. He’s 6-foot-5. B. He’s athletic. C. He’s got hockey sense. He’s like another defenseman back there with the puck. Some goalies are just goalies, they just stop the puck. They don’t know anything else except when the puck’s coming at them. (When they have it) they throw it away because they don’t know what else to do with it. We’re up 2-1 (Friday) and Army pulls their goalie while we’re on a penalty, a 6-on-4. We force a release. Shane goes over to get the puck, he doesn’t just stop it. He comes, surrounds the puck and bumps it out into an area where our defenseman (Phil Boje), who is left-handed, could turn into it and clear it, go for the empty net. If he just leaves it, our defenseman takes it on his off side, where’s not going to clear it on his back hand. By the time he comes all the way around to clear it, somebody’s going to take it. Shane bumps it where he can take it on his forehand and clear it down the ice. He missed the empty net but it bounced off the end boards. (Tyler) Ledford won the race and scored. Starrett had an assist on that goal, and it was a legit assist. … He’s good. I’m a believer. You know what I like best, he’s a winner. It doesn’t matter what the score is at the end, he’s doing his little dance with (Evan) Feno and (Jordan) Himley. He just wants to win.

On the Bentley series:

They should be higher in the standings. They’ve got a good team. They’ve got a couple of the league’s best forwards. … They’ve got some skill and talent. … On paper Bentley has a better team than where they are in the standings. They came in here earlier this season and we beat them on Friday. I thought they manhandled us here on Saturday. When I look at our final eight games, there are no layups. But the one I am most leery about is going into the JAR we call it – the John A. Ryan rink – it’s like playing in this room. It’s small, low ceiling, a huge home ice advantage, and we’re going in shorthanded. We may only travel with 21 players. If we can get some points out of this series, I’m going to be hugely optimistic. This is a huge test for us. We’re going into a tough rink against a team that really hasn’t performed to their potential. They don’t fear us. We’re going to have to go in with the same mentality we did on Saturday, junkyard dogs.