Falcons knock off No. 1 St. Cloud for elite eight return

TOPICS:
Goalie Billy Christopoulos is the penalty kill's last line of defense, and a good one at that. Photo courtesy of Paat Kelly and Air Force Athletics

Posted By: FlightChief March 23, 2018

A 50th season of Air Force hockey that was on life support before Christmas now sees the Falcons one win away from the first Frozen Four in the program’s history.

The Falcons got two goals from senior Tyler Ledford early in the second period and Billy Christopoulos made 39 saves in a 4-1 victory over St. Cloud State, the NCAA Tournament’s top seed, in the West Regional at Sioux Falls, S.D.

Air Force assistant captain Tyler Ledford

Assistant captain Tyler Ledford

In a victory that is arguably the biggest in program history to this point, Air Force (23-14-5) kept St. Cloud largely to the outside by outworking the more-heralded Huskies, who won the NCHC’s regular-season title before losing to Denver in that league’s conference title game last Saturday. The Falcons blocked 29 shots, a career-high nine by senior defenseman Phil Boje.

On the occasions the Huskies (25-9-6) got quality scoring chances, Christopoulos, as he has been so often this season, was there to make the save. St. Cloud’s only tally came with 2:51 left in the game when it scored off a line rush. Patrick Newell found Blake Lizotte on the back door, to Christopoulos’ right. But that was all the Falcons allowed.

The Falcons put the game away with a quasi empty-net goal and an empty-net goal in the final 1:34 to pick up their first victory over a No. 1 team in program history and set up a regional final against Minnesota Duluth, which defeated Minnesota State, 3-2, in overtime later Friday.

“We have a good team and we have a red-hot goalie,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said. “With all the injuries we have had this season, it didn’t seem like it was going to be our year. But this group just refuses to surrender. This might not be the best group of individuals I’ve ever brought to the national tournament, but it might be the best team. They’ve got something special.

“SCSU is one hell of a hockey team and they are very well coached. We got some fortunate bounces today and that’s hockey.”

Jordan Himley made it 3-1 when he finished a left-to-right play with Matt Serratore, who had gathered the puck in the neutral zone and led a 2-on-1. Huskies goalie David Hrenak (22 saves) got caught heading to the bench and dove to try to break up the play but to no avail.

Kyle Haak applied the finishing touch with an empty-netter with 48 seconds left, again on a feed from Serratore.

“We really wanted to come out and have a hot start and get on the forecheck, and I thought we did,” Matt Serratore said. “We kind of established a hard, fast-paced game right away. We got the lead and we knew it was going to be difficult.”

Air Force established its forecheck early and seemed to beat St. Cloud to every loose puck in the first period. The Huskies, who came into the game with the 11th-best power play in Division I, had two power-play chances in the period but the Falcons held them to one total shot with their aggressive play.

Christopoulos, who had kept the game scoreless with a point-blank stop midway through the first period, made perhaps his best save with 1:29 to go on a St. Cloud 2-on-1 while the Falcons were on their lone power play.

“Game after game that guy does it,” senior assistant captain Erik Baskin said. “He’s the heart of this team. It’s so great to have him playing this well.”

Ledford turns the tide

The Falcons, who forced turnover after turnover, capitalized on a pair to make it 2-0 in the first 6:29 of the second period, an important development as the Huskies’ offense began to pick up steam. St. Cloud attempted 78 shots to Air Force’s 38, a margin mitigated in part by the Falcons’ willingness to get in shooting lanes and take one for the team, which they did 29 times.

“You have to block shots,” Frank Serratore said. “You’re not going to win if you don’t block shots.”

St. Cloud State defenseman Jimmy Schuldt, a Hobey Baker semifinalist, tried to advance the puck from deep in the Huskies zone when Ledford tipped it in the air, then tracked the puck in the slot and batted it past Hrenak 2:57 in. The play was upheld after a review.

 

“We were telling our guys, goal or not, let’s just stick with our game,” Falcons assistant coach Joe Doyle told AM 1300. “Our room is running our team at this point. Our junior senior leadership is so good. They’ve been driving this bus the past 4-6 weeks.”

Baskin then broke up a Huskies breakout play near the St. Cloud blue line, the tipped puck came to defenseman Matt Koch, whose shot pass to Hrenak’s left was deflected in by Ledford at 6:29.

“I saw the turnover developing and Matt made a great play,” Ledford said. “He saw me, I was screaming for it and he threw a pretty hard pass. I just wanted to tip it home and luckily enough, it went in.”

Added Baskin, “Taking a 2-0 lead is definitely in the game plan of what you want to do. You’ve got to calm everyone down. There was so much hockey left.”

 

The Falcons then endured a furious push by the Huskies in the third.

“It was a little chaotic but we have a good structure for a reason,” Ledford said. “We went to our 1-2-2 and we feel confident, honestly, with Bill in net. How unbelievable was he? He’s legit. We’re always confident.”

The victory propels the Falcons to the elite eight for the second year in a row and just the third time in program history. They also advanced this far in 2009.

It marked the season-high fourth victory in a row for the Falcons, who are 8-1-1 in their past 10 games and improved to 13-6-4 on the road. Air Force had to win its way into the tournament by defeating Army West Point in a hard-fought three-game Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal series, then knocked off Canisius and Robert Morris to win the AHC’s playoff title last weekend.

“We’re excited to keep on playing,” Baskin said. “We’ve been playing elimination games since that third game at Army. These guys have just rallied together. I’m so proud to be on this team.”

Air Force’s three stars

  1. Billy Christopoulos. The junior was superlative in making 39 saves against the fourth-highest scoring team in the nation.
  2. Tyler Ledford. The senior scored the first two goals of the game, including what would prove to be the game-winner.
  3. Matt Serratore. The junior left wing set up the final two goals with hustle plays and logged a ton of ice time down at important moments.

Up next

The Falcons will play the winner of Friday night’s Minnesota Duluth-Minnesota State game at 7 p.m. on ESPN2, as well as AM1300.

©FIrst Line Editorial 2017-18

SHARE TWEET PIN SHARE

Related Articles