A disciplined approach has given Air Force a chance in many games this season. On Saturday night, a lack of composure at the worst possible time short circuited the Falcons’ designs on an Atlantic Hockey Conference sweep.

Canisius scored two power-play goals, including a strike 26 seconds into a 5 on 3 midway through the third period, to defeat Air Force, 3-0. It marked sixth time this season the Falcons have been shut out and the 11th time they’ve been held to one or fewer goals.

Saturday’s game at Cadet Arena turned for the worse with 9:09 to play when Zack Mirageas leveled Austin Alger with a high hit. Mirageas received a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

Just 59 seconds into that penalty, Dan Bailey was whistled for a tripping call, and Canisius’ leader scorer, Dylan McLaughlin, scored to make it 2-0. The senior added an empty-netter in the final minute of a game that had zero even-strength goals.

“Tonight we cheated ourselves,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said. “I really believe we could have tied that game and maybe won it. We did all that work to get down to the final 9 minutes and we take a bad two penalties and go down two goals.

“I loved our competitive spirit all weekend. We were terrific for five and a half periods. We had taken a major step. When it was all said and done, we beat ourselves and that’s not acceptable.”

Momentum shifts

Canisius (10-18-3, 7-16-2 AHC) came out with more fire than on Friday, when it lost 3-0, and it got on the board against the Falcons’ second-ranked power play just 5:23 into the game.

Felix Chamberland skated on the inside of the left circle after defenseman Heath Cameron had drawn Billy Christopoulos (17 saves) to the right side. Cameron’s pass into the slot was beautifully redirected by Chamberland into the open weak side of the net.

Kieran Durgan nearly tied it for Air Force late in the first. Taking a nice chip pass from a falling Walker Sommer off the wall opposite of the player benches, Durgan skated in along on Matt Ladd and shot. The puck came to rest on one of the goalie’s pads and as Durgan and a defender collided with him the puck went in.

The play was ruled no goal due to goaltender interference and confirmed by a review.

“(Canisius’) goalie played well,” AFA senior assistant captain Kyle Haak said. “We had a lot of traffic. The goal getting called off early on doesn’t help, that was a momentum swing. We struggled with offense, every goal counts, every shot on goal counts.”

Ladd earned his first shutout of his NCAA career with 39 saves, and several were dandies, robbing Haak, Matt Pulver and Evan Giesler at point blank.

“We ran into a hot goalie,” added Giesler, a senior co-captain. “We can’t sit here and sulk about the chances we had. We had our opportunities. I had one I should have buried.”

Final push

Even with all that, it was anyone’s game through the first half of the third period, and Air Force had held Canisius to just 13 shots at that point. A game that seemed to hinge on every shift suddenly came unhinged.

“When the fans were sensing we were going to score. When Canisius was sensing are we going to be able to continue this luck, we take a horrible penalty, then we take another penalty to put ourselves down a full-service 5 on 3,” Serratore said. “We played 51 terrific minutes.

“When it was all said and done, you’ve got to give Matt Ladd credit, he was terrific in goal. He was both good and he was lucky.

“We finished the job for them. We lost our composure, we took a bad penalty. … We cheated ourselves out of 9 minutes.”

Even with that, the Falcons had a couple more chances late. With their net empty, they drew a penalty for a 6-on-4 situation. Then 14 seconds later Trevor Stone took a slashing penalty.

“They had to beat us with two things – rush offense and power plays, and that’s what ultimately was the case,” Serratore said.”We didn’t manage the puck well, get it deep with the sixth attacker.”

The big picture

The split wasn’t as damaging in the Atlantic Hockey standings as it could have been, however. Second-place Bentley didn’t play. RIT, tied with Air Force for third, lost to Sacred Heart, which swapped places with Mercyhurst into fifth by beating the Lakers.

With two regular-season series left, Air Force still controls its destiny for a top-four spot in the conference playoffs and its accompanying bye and home quarterfinal series.

“We’re pretty happy with our effort for the first 51 minutes,” Giesler said. “Then the wheels came off in terms of our composure. Guys lipping off to the refs, we’ve got to eliminate that from our game. But we’ll take the other 51 minutes.”

Air Force’s three stars

1. Evan Giesler. The senior had his chances, as his team-high five shots attest.
2. Jake Levin. The defenseman blocked five shots, including a missile in the closing minutes, and added three shots.
3. Kyle Haak. The senior has found another gear of late and was another forward who created plenty of chances. He also won 13 of 20 face-offs (65 percent).

Up next

The Falcons will travel to Mercyhurst for an Atlantic Hockey Conference series next Friday and Saturday. The Lakers picked up just one of four points against Army West Point this weekend and dropped to sixth in the league.

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