Thursday night’s third period had a little bit of everything, none of it good for Air Force.

After a period that would make Murphy double down on his Law, the Falcons ended up on the losing end of a 5-0 verdict to Niagara in an Atlantic Hockey Conference game at Cadet Arena.

“That was about as much fun as watching your dog get hit by a car,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said.

The carnage in the final 20 minutes included, but wasn’t limited to:

• Trailing 2-0 but mounting some pressure, an apparent goal by Evan Giesler was overturned by a video review that determined the Falcons’ extended stay in the Purple Eagles’ zone began with an offside. A momentum shifter? “I guess you could say that the way the game ended up,” Giesler said. “We’ve got to do a better job taking the momentum, we’ve got to continue to roll.”
• About four minutes later, senior Kyle Haak left the game with an upper body injury after a collision with Niagara’s Ludwig Stenlund that – after review – was ruled interference.
• Seventeen seconds later, Niagara broke the game open during a 4-on-4. Alex Truscott reached the puck first behind the Falcons’ net. He sent a pass into the slot that banked off a defender’s skate past Billy Christopoulos (22 saves).
• Only 3:16 later, the Purple Eagles won a draw to Christopoulos’ right, got a shot off, then Zach Mills won a race to the rebound and backhanded it in over Christopoulos.
• With 7:44 to go, Serratore pulled Christopoulos only to see Niagara score a 140-foot empty-net goal 57 seconds later.

When it was all said and done, Air Force (1-4, 1-2 AHC) saw its scoreless streak increase to 120:23, covering the past two-plus games. Aside from the seven-goal outburst at Canisius last Friday, the Falcons have scored one goal twice and been shut out the past two games.

“I told the guys between periods, ‘Don’t worry about the goals, just play our game’,” Serratore said. “Some frustration set in. When I pulled the goalie, I was just trying to get a goal. We had three face-offs and lost every one.”

The Falcons, who had been good in the face-off circle until Thursday, lost 44 of 74 draws (40 percent).

The Falcons also lost for the third time in a row at home to the Purple Eagles (2-3, 2-1 AHC), who swept them at Cadet Arena last December. And they surrendered the first goal for the fifth game in a row.

No thanks on seconds

Through two periods, the game followed a similar script to Saturday’s 2-0 shutout at Canisius, albeit one with a few different actors. The Falcons held wide advantages in shots taken (they finished with a 65-46 edge) and those that found the goal (39-27 overall), but they had nothing to show for it.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” Giesler said. “We’re not getting a lot of penetration, we’re not getting second and third opportunities, we need to get more guys to the front of the goal to get second and third whacks and score those ugly goals.”

Instead, the opposition found the net twice on eerily similar plays that began with neutral-zone turnovers.

On the first Purple Eagles goal, which came with 8:21 to go in the first, Eric Cooley obtained the puck and zipped down the left wing, firing a close-range shot at the lower corner of the circle. Christopoulos made the initial save, but Ben Sokay gathered the rebound on the goal line and put it in from the off angle.

Fast forward to the closing minutes of the second period. Air Force had sustained pressure in the Niagara zone but another turnover led to a two-on-one break for the Purple Eagles. Reed Robinson drove right down Main Street and Christopoulos made another point-blank save, but the rebound stayed in the blue paint and Dylan Mills poked it in.

“In the first period, I liked us,” Serratore said. “They were opportunistic. We didn’t make a lot of mistakes, but when we did, they ended up in our net.”

Sick bay

Senior co-captain Matt Serratore missed his second consecutive game because he remains in concussion protocol. The left wing, who has a goal and an assist in three games, was injured in last Friday’s 7-3 victory at Canisius.

Unfortunately, he will be joined on the sidelines by fellow senior co-captain Matt Koch as well as Haak. Koch is one of just two upperclassmen on the Falcons’ blue line. He did not play in the third period after suffering an undisclosed injury.

“We just became a real young team,” said Serratore, who coached his 800th game at the Academy. “We’ve been through this before.”

It calls to mind last season, when the Falcons were decimated with injuries, particularly at center, in the first half of the season.

“Our only way out is to work our way out of this,” the coach added. “I asked the team if they had the kind of substance our group last year did.”

Up next

Air Force and Niagara will play the second game of the series Friday night at Cadet Arena at 7:05 p.m.

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