A first period to forget ultimately ended a season to remember for Air Force in the NCAA West Regional final at Sioux Falls, S.D.
Minnesota Duluth held the Falcons without a shot on goal for the first 23:56 of the game and got two first-period goals in a 2-1 victory on Saturday night.
For the second season in a row, Air Force (23-15-5) saw its campaign end in the elite eight. And for the second season in a row, the Falcons staged a rally that came up just short.
Evan Giesler scored a bad-angle goal off the back of a leg of Duluth goaltender Hunter Shepard with 6:16 to play to pull the Falcons to one goal in a game in which they struggled to manufacture chances.
Air Force gets a bounce!
Evan Giesler banks the puck in the goal off Shepard’s skate and we have a one goal game! #NCAAHockey pic.twitter.com/RMV7cfCAbD
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) March 25, 2018
From there, the Falcons continued storming the Bulldogs’ zone but could not beat Shepard for a tying goal.
It was a rough ending to a season in which the Falcons showed a cargo plane-load of resiliency.
A rash of injuries had the Falcons stationed in 10th place in Atlantic Hockey in December and sporting a 7-8-3 overall record. They recovered after the break, going 16-7-2 in the second half, including a 8-2-1 tear to finish the season.
The only other loss in the latter stretch aside from Saturday’s was a 1-0 defeat at Army West Point in Game 2 of that hotly contested AHC quarterfinal. AFA dominated the conference’s final four, ousting Canisius and Robert Morris by a combined 7-1.
At the heart of the Falcons’ run to the NCAAs was junior goaltender Billy Christopoulos, who emphatically answered every preseason question about the position that predecessor Shane Starrett vacated last spring when he signed a pro contract with the Edmonton Oilers. Christopoulos played the most minutes of any goaltender in college hockey while posting five shutous, a save percentage above .920 and a goals-against average in the 2 neighborhood. He allowed just 34 goals in the Falcons’ final 23 games, when they went 15-6-2.
One night after jumping out to a 2-0 lead against top-ranked St. Cloud State, the tables were turned on Air Force against an aggressive Duluth team that seemed to own the neutral zone.
New Jersey Devils draft pick Joey Anderson gave the Bulldogs (23-16-3) a 1-0 lead 9:03 into the game. Riley Tufte, a Dallas Stars pick, fired a shot from the left circle that Christopoulos (24 saves) stopped. However, the rebound went almost directly to Anderson in the slot. He fired a backhander that found the open right side of the net.
Just 3:09 later, defenseman Nick Wolff took a cross-ice pass from Jade Miller and walked to the top of the left circle where he ripped a shot that beat a screened Christopoulos top shelf.
The Falcons slowly gained momentum in the second period, ultimately generated their first six shots on goal – same as the Bulldogs had.
Notable
The Falcons’ eight seniors – Dylan Abood, Erik Baskin, Phil Boje, Jordan Himley, Jonathan Kopacka, Ben Kucera, Tyler Ledford and Kyle Mackey – set an Academy record with 86 wins by their class.
Air Force’s three stars
- Evan Giesler. The junior drew the Falcons to one with an opportunistic power-play goal late in the third period.
- Billy Christopoulos. He made 12 of his 24 saves in the first period and kept the Falcons in it when the game could have slipped away.
- Matt Koch. The defenseman had the first assist on Giesler’s goal.
©First Line Editorial 2017-18
