Air Force (11-8-1, 9-5 AHC) vs. Army West Point (8-11-1, 7-6-1)

7:05 p.m. Friday and 5:05 p.m. Saturday at Cadet Arena

Radio / webcast: 1300 AM, on TuneIn / atlantichockey.tv

Series: Air Force leads, 45-24-6, and has won four of the past five meetings, including an Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal last March and two games at West Point, N.Y., in early November. The Black Knights, however, swept last season’s series at Cadet Arena

Overview

One thing is for certain, these will be close games. You have to go back to Jan. 14, 2011 to find either team winning by more than two goals (that was a Falcons win) and many of the two-goal margins include empty-netters. … After their sweep at the hands of the Falcons in early November, the Black Knights split four consecutive AHC series before dropping their past three games to start the second half of the season. … Junior forward Michael Wilson, who has feasted on Air Force in the past, has not played since Nov. 9, and sophomore goalie Trevin Kozlowski hasn’t played since Nov. 10. Jared Dempsey has gone 3-6 with .890 save percentage and a 3.27 GAA in net since. Junior forward Evan Evancho has 18 points and classmate Dominic Franco has 9 goals, but two of the most important drivers of the Black Knights’ offense come from the blue line – senior Dalton MacAfee (18 points) and junior Alex Wilkinson (16). … Air Force has points in three of its four games since the break, the exception being a 4-1 loss (that included two empty-net goals against) to then-No. 17 Western Michigan in the Ice Vegas Invitational final. … AFA goalie Billy Christopoulos stopped 56 of 59 shots last weekend is 9-6-1 with a .917 save percentage and 2.29 GAA. Defenseman Matt Koch got his first goal of the season in a four-point weekend and made the all-tournament team with Christopoulos. Fellow seniors Evan Feno (17 points, 9 goals) and Kyle Haak (14, 8) also had big weekends, with Feno ringing up five points against St. Lawrence and Haak finishing with four. A fifth senior, Evan Giesler, has 14 points and also has played very well since the break. Add in freshman forward Kieran Durgan‘s eight goals and the Falcons’ scoring depth is improving.

Three keys for Air Force

Stay special – Besides Christopoulos, the Falcons’ special teams are the biggest reason for their strong second-half play. AFA has killed off 51 of its past 52 penalties, including streaks of 36 and now 15. It’s 90.7 percent kill rate is second in D-I. The power play had five goals last weekend and now sits at 23.7 percent, 10th in the nation. Army’s power play is even better, at 28.4 percent. The Army PP-Air Force PK matchup is huge.

See ya puck – Army doesn’t have quite the size advantage it’s had in previous seasons, but Franco (6-5) in particular can cause a lot of havoc if he’s allowed to roam around the offensive zone. It’s incumbent upon Air Force’s defense to move the puck out of the zone, something its adept at doing, so the Black Knights don’t have sustained attack time.

D up and down – Air Force has a goal from its defense in each of the past two weekends after having all of one in the fall. The Falcons are far better when the defense becomes offensive. The same holds true for Army, so Air Force’s wings had better keep an eye on MacAfee and Wilkinson.

©First Line Editorial 2017-19