Air Force scored four power-play goals and killed off a five-minute penalty in a dominant 7-1 victory over St. Lawrence in a first-round game at the Ice Vegas Invitational at Las Vegas on Friday.
Evan Feno had a career-high five points and Evan Giesler and Kyle Haak racked up four points apiece. Giesler and Haak also had two goals apiece and Feno added one. The Falcons (11-7-1) also got goals from Kieran Durgan and Walker Sommer. The seven goals tied a season high.
Billy Christopoulos made 17 saves, allowing only a breakaway goal to Cade Gleekel with 6:19 left in the game and Air Force up 6-0.
“We knew they were going to gum things up. We utilized our legs to draw penalties,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said. “The biggest thing is we didn’t want to them to let them get the lead. When we got the lead it opened things up.
“That’s a team we should have beaten and we did. Tomorrow we face a completely different animal in Western Michigan.”
Third-period surge
After getting single power-play goals (by Koch and Giesler) in each of the first two periods, the Falcons erupted for five goals in the third period.
Giesler got his second just 2:03 into the third period before the Saints received an opportunity to get back into the game.
Center Brady Tomlak was whistled for a hit from behind that resulted in a major penalty and a game misconduct.
But the Falcons tightened up and killed it off, allowing only a couple of shots on goal in the process.
Less than two minutes later the floodgates opened.
Kieran Durgan scored his eighth with 8:28 to play off a feed from Dan Bailey. Just 26 seconds later, Feno netted his ninth goal. After the Saints’ fifth penalty, Haak redirected a Koch point shot past Daniel Mannella (20 saves) only 51 seconds later to remove all doubt about the outcome.
Air Force’s three stars
- Evan Giesler. The senior had two goals, including the winner, and two assists.
- Kyle Haak. He also had two and two, and he won 12 of 17 face-offs.
- Evan Feno. Five points included assists on all four Falcons power-play goals.
Up next
The Falcons will play Western Michigan at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday for the tournament championship.
