Air Force (16-13-5) vs. Niagara (14-18-5)
Best-of-3 Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal series
Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), 7:05 p.m. at Cadet Arena
How they got here: Air Force finished third in the conference and received a bye for the first round of the playoffs. Niagara, the sixth seed, survived a grueling three-game series against Upstate New York rival Canisius. The Purple Eagles won Game 1 in double overtime, lost Game 2 in overtime and won Game 3 by a goal.
Radio / streaming: 1300 AM / atlantichockey.tv (subscription)
Series: Niagara leads, 36-31-5. The teams split two games at Cadet Arena in late October, with Niagara winning 5-0 before Air Force bounced back for a 2-1 victory. … Air Force has a 19-17-1 edge in the series at Cadet Arena. … In the teams’ only AHC playoff meeting, Niagara won a quarterfinal series in 2014. Air Force took Game 1, then the Eagles won the next two.
Overview
Can this senior class of Falcons make it four years in a row going to the AHC Final Four? … Air Force accomplished that six years in a row, then lost quarterfinal series from 2013-15 before reaching the Final Four the past three years, and winning it the past two, giving them seven titles (and NCAA Tournament berths). … While both teams like to play fast, aggressive hockey, it comes out in translation in very different ways. The Falcons allowed just 65 goals in conference play (2.32 per game), best in AHC, and overall gave up just 84 goals, also best among AHC teams. Niagara, meanwhile scored 116 goals overall (tops among AHC teams), and its 94 conference goals (3.36) were second only to AIC’s 102.
Three keys for Air Force
- Pay attention to the point – One of the big drivers of Niagara’s offense is defenseman Noah Delmas, who has a team-high 38 points. He moves well and moves the puck well so it’s incumbent upon the Falcons’ wings to keep track of him in every zone.
- Keep the PK going strong – Delmas has five power-play goals and freshman Ludwig Stenlund has an NCAA-best 10 PPGs. As a team, the Eagles have 31, also among the nation’s leaders. Their 22.3 percent rate is 15th in the nation. The good news is Air Force has the nation’s best penalty kill at 89.7 percent and has allowed just 1 goal in the past 20 chances against. Overall, Air Force has allowed only 15 PPGs.
- Keep it balanced – When the Falcons are at their best when they’re getting scoring from up and down their lineup. From the defense? Matt Koch has 25 points, Zack Mirageas has 16 and Jake Levin has 13. Up the middle? Kyle Haak has 22 points and a team-high 12 goals, Evan Feno also has 22 points and 11 goals and Brady Tomlak has 17 and 8. From the wings? Evan Giesler has 20 points (7 goals), Kieran Durgan 17 (11) and Walker Sommer (8 goals) and Trevor Stone (9 goals) are close to 10 goals. And Matt Pulver (8 points) might be playing as well as any Falcons forward.
©First Line Editorial 2017-19
