Air Force (13-11-4, 11-8-3 AHC) vs. Canisius (9-17-3, 6-15-2)

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

Series: Air Force leads, 22-14-9, and the teams split a series earlier this season at Buffalo

Radio / Streaming: 1300 AM / atlantichockey.tv (subscription)

What’s at stake

Do the Falcons want a first-round bye in the Atlantic Hockey Conference playoffs? Of course they do. So it behooves them to take three or four points this weekend because after RIT’s win Friday afternoon, AFA sits in fourth place, just one point ahead of Mercyhurst and Sacred Heart. Air Force is two points behind RIT, five behind Bentley and 10 back of AIC. The top five get a bye and the top four host a quarterfinal series. A bad weekend could drop Air Force to sixth with two weeks to go in the regular season. A sweep keeps them at least tied for third. Canisius likely is opening the playoffs on the road.

Overview

Is there a more baffling team in college hockey than Canisius? One night after Air Force drilled the Golden Griffins, 7-2, in October, they bounced back to shut out AFA, 2-0. Then, Canisius swept North Dakota to start the new year – probably the biggest non-conference sweep for any Atlantic Hockey team this season – and has followed that watershed event by going 1-8-1 since. … The Golden Griffins have badly felt the loss of junior goalie Daniel Urbani to a season-long injury, allowing almost 4 goals per game. Their 114 goals allowed are the most in Division I. In contrast, Air Force has allowed 72, and only 51 in league play. Where would the Falcons be without senior goalie Billy Christopoulos, who leads the league in save percentage (.928) and GAA (1.83). Christopoulos, AHC’s goalie of the month in January, was dented for seven goals two weeks ago at Bentley after giving up 16 in eight games before that. … Canisius has the best offensive player in the league in senior Dylan McLaughlin, whose 16 goals lead AHC. His 33 points are third most. Fellow forwards Austin Alger (24 points, 11 goals) and Nick Hutchison (22, 11) also do quite a bit of damage. … Air Force’s senior-heavy attack is led by defenseman Matt Koch (22 points) and centers Evan Feno (21) and Kyle Haak (18). Haak and freshman Keiran Durgan have 11 goals and Feno has 10.

Three keys for Air Force

1. Find your finishing move – Canisius will take a lot of chances. If Air Force can stay disciplined and steal some pucks, it will find itself with a lot of odd-man rushes.
2. Turn on the pressure cooker – The Falcons’ forecheck can be a real handful for most teams, but for one as defensively challenged as the Golden Griffins it should be a catalyst for plenty of scoring chances.
3. Stay special – Canisius has a decent power play (19 percent), but the Falcons have D-I’s second-best penalty kill (almost 90 percent). The big disparity is when AFA has a power play (21 percent), because Canisius only kills off 78 percent of its penalties.

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