One night after absorbing by far its worst loss of the season, No. 19 Air Force bounced back to blast Bemidji State, 5-1, in a non-conference game Saturday night at Bemidji, Minn.
Jordan Himley scored the first and last goals for the Falcons (4-1-1), Matt Serratore scored a goal for the second night in a row and added an assist, and Tyler Ledford and Matt Koch added goals during the second period. Koch’s goal was his third of the season, tying him with Erik Baskin for the team lead, and fellow defenseman Phil Boje added two assists.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore told AM 1300 after the game. “It’s unbelievable how we bounced back. That team (the Beavers) was so good (Friday during a 4-1 victory) they made us look so bad. It almost looked like the teams had switched jerseys. That’s how dominant they were Friday and how dominant we were tonight.”
The Falcons coaching staff had a spirited meeting with the team before lunch Saturday.
“They beat us so badly. Are they that much better than us? If they are, we’re in trouble,” Serratore said. “We put it on the line.
“This was a huge win in terms of where we’re at now.”
The other notable part of Saturday’s game was the Falcons did something no team did in 39 games last season – chased All-American goaltender Michael Bitzer, who exited late in the second period after allowing AFA’s fourth goal on the 24th shot he faced. Bitzer allowed four or more goals just four times in those 39 games a season ago.
Conversely, Falcons goalie Billy Christopoulos stopped 29 of 30 shots and was under seige at times in the third period, when the Beavers outshot the Falcons, 13-2.
The return of Matt Serratore, who missed the first four games of the season because of concussion symptoms, and the re-emergence of Himley’s scoring touch have to be heartening. Himley led the Falcons with 37 points last season, but had just one after four games. He assisted on Serratore’s goal Friday and then got the Falcons on the board 7:24 in the first with a helper from Serratore.
Serratore then gave the Falcons’ a two-goal edge with just 21 seconds to play in the first period when he buried a pass from Brady Tomlak.
The Beavers got back into it temporarily when Jay Dickman scored a power-play goal early in the second period. It was the second night in a row AFA surrendered a power-play marker.
Midway through the period, Ledford and Koch struck, the latter finishing a nice pass from Ben Kucera, and that effectively was that. Bitzer was out and the Falcons played it safe with the three-goal lead. Himley got an empty-netter in the final minute.
“If you had asked me if we’d take a 4-1-1 record after these six non-conference games, we would have said yes in a heartbeat,” Serratore said. “I hope we learned some lessons and I hope we take them with us to Buffalo next weekend (for an Atlantic Hockey-opening series at Canisius).
The Serratore Series
The Falcons’ margin of victory on Saturday gave them an aggregate score of 6-5 over the Beavers this weekend, and that can only mean one thing, Frank Serratore said. The Falcons won the series (even though it was a split), something he’ll remind his brother Tom, the Beavers’ coach, at the next family reunion. “We won the brother series,” Frank quipped after the game.
AFA’s three stars
- Matt Serratore. A force at both ends of the ice, the junior got a goal for the second night in a row and set up Jordan Himley’s all-important first goal.
- Jordan Himley. The two-goal game was just what the doctor ordered for the Falcons and for the senior winger, who is one of the team’s offensive spark plugs.
- Brady Tomlak. The center did a bit of everything, winning 13 of 18 face-offs, going plus-2, blocking two shots and setting up what proved to the game-winning goal by Serratore.
Next up
The Falcons open Atlantic Hockey Conference play at Canisius next weekend. The Golden Griffins tied Colgate, 3-3, on Saturday after splitting a series with Robert Morris the previous weekend.
