Air Force wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
One night after falling in overtime to Niagara, the Falcons found themselves in another back-and-forth battle. This time, one 11-second stretch ended up turning the game – and ending their season.
Kris Spriggs and Nick Farmer scored goals late in the second period – the only two shots Niagara managed in that period – to give Purple Eagles the lead for good in a 5-4 Atlantic Hockey Conference victory that ended Air Force’s designs on a fourth consecutive trip to the league’s final four and potentially a second consecutive NCAA Tournament.
The Falcons outshot their guests 43-24, including 34-5 over the final two periods. In the process, they hit four more pipes (the same number they rang Friday).
“We fought gallantly and had a great effort, but just came up short,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said. “Sometimes it’s just not your weekend. If it wasn’t for bad puck luck, we wouldn’t have had any puck luck at all. I can’t remember a series where a team hit so many pipes as we did in this series.
“I give Niagara a lot of credit. They made some adjustments tonight that helped them. Over the last several years, we have had some bounces go our way, but it wasn’t meant to be tonight.”
Matt Pulver scored the first Air Force goal. Photo courtesy of Paat Kelly / Pengo Sports and Air Force Athletics
Wild start
The teams combined for five first-period goals.
Tyler Hayes‘ rebound goal at 4:42 for Niagara (16-18-5) in was answered by Matt Pulver‘s score just 1:09 later. Pulver forced a turnover and beat goalie Brian Wilson (39 saves). Walker Sommer gave the Falcons (16-15-5) their only lead of the game only 2:15 after that when he took a face-off win from Kyle Haak and snapped it past Wilson from inside the right circle.
Niagara answered with two goals in 83 seconds – from Chris Harpur on a wrist shot from the slot and all-conference defenseman Noah Delmas‘ shot on a 5-on-3 power play with 2:11 to go.
Falcons freshman Kieran Durgan tied it with a power-play goal from the right circle midway through the second, taking a feed from Sommer from the left side. The Purple Eagles got the decisive goals about eight minutes later.
Air Force battled back, scoring just 14 seconds into the third period when Erich Jaeger collected Zack Mirageas‘ stretch pass and beat Wilson for his first of the season. It could not cash in on a late power play and an extra attacker when Billy Christopoulos (19 saves) was pulled.
Small consolation
The Falcons’ senior class finished with 86 victories, tied for the most in program history with the 2018 class. The group reached the final eight of the past two NCAA Tournaments.
While the Falcons will graduate their top four scorers – Matt Koch, Kyle Haak, Evan Feno and Evan Giesler – as well as Christopoulos, they can take a little consolation in that their next 10 scorers all return.
On Saturday, all four goal scorers were non-seniors.
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