If someone had put me in a headlock before Air Force’s 2018-19 hockey season and asked me which player I thought would garner the most three stars selections I would have said, “That’s easy – senior Billy Christopoulos.”
It wasn’t a risky prediction. The goaltender turned in another strong season – winning the team’s MVP award for the second year in a row. And he led the Falcons with a total of 16 three stars selections. Christopoulos played in 32 games, meaning, he was a star in exactly half of his starts this season.
My criteria for three stars selections – which differs from what is used in the arenas because is I limit it to Falcons players – generally was which three Falcons had the biggest impact on the outcome. Sometimes that meant goals and saves, sometimes it meant consistently forcing turnovers, breaking up opponents’ pressure. Clutch plays factored in, as did bone-headed penalties. I covered nearly every home game in person and watched several road games online.
Points were assigned in inverse order of star selections. So a first star is worth three points, a second two and a third one.
Overall points
- Billy Christopoulos – 36
- Kyle Haak – 27
- Evan Feno – 21
- Brady Tomlak – 17
- Evan Giesler, Trevor Stone – 14
- Kieran Durgan – 12
- Matt Koch, Alex Mehnert, Matt Pulver – 10
- Dan Bailey – 6
- Zach LaRocque, Zack Mirageas, Walker Sommer – 5
- Jake Levin, Joe Tyran – 4
- Pierce Pluemer – 3
- Erich Jaeger, Keegan Mantaro, Matt Serratore – 1
Breaking it down: On the surface this points to a top-heavy team, which is a surprise because typically the Falcons are more balanced. However, Christopoulos was so good so often that it skews the numbers a bit. I thought Haak had the best all-around season of his career even if he didn’t hit his sophomore scoring totals. Feno – like Haak an every-situation stalwart – had a strong bounce-back season from a devastating knee injury, and Tomlak had stretches when he was outstanding and quite a few when he was pretty good. Giesler and Stone also were very good for stretches and were beacons of hard work. Durgan was one of the best freshmen in Atlantic Hockey, and the defensemen on this list all played better as the season went along.
Kyle Haak. Photo courtesy of Paat Kelly / Pengo Sports and Air Force Athletics
Most first stars
- Billy Christopoulos – 7
- Kyle Haak – 5
- Evan Giesler, Brady Tomlak – 4
- Kieran Durgan – 3
- Alex Mehnert, Matt Pulver – 2
- Five others with 1
Breaking it down: What’s interesting here, is how many of Giesler’s, Tomlak’s and Durgan’s appearances are due to being a first star (4 of 6, 4 of 8 and 3 of 5, respectively). So when they were good, they were really good. On the other side of that scale, just one of Feno’s 11 appearances was as a first star – so it’s fair to give him the Mr. Consistency Award. Either Christopoulos or Haak was the first star in roughly a third of the Falcons’ games. Think about that for a minute.
MORE FALCONS HOCKEY
Haak wins the Senior CLASS Award
Most appearances
- Billy Christopoulos – 16
- Kyle Haak – 14
- Evan Feno – 11
- Brady Tomlak – 8
- Evan Giesler, Trevor Stone – 6
- Matt Koch, Alex Mehnert, Matt Pulver – 5
- Dan Bailey, Zack Mirageas – 4
Breaking it down: This tracks fairly close to the overall points. The standout here again is Feno, who like Haak and Christopoulos, was one of the Falcons’ best players night-in, night-out. Given that the two forwards both missed multiple games due to injuries, their numbers could have been higher, as could Christopoulos’. The goalie overcame emergency surgery that forced him to miss four games.
In conclusion: It was expected that seniors would dominate Air Force’s season, and in some ways, they did. The top three point getters were seniors and four of the top six. However, among the top 10 point getters, half were seniors, suggesting the cupboard is far from bare heading into the 2019-20 season.
©First Line Editorial 2019
