What, me worry?

Not the goaltender his coach recently described as “one cool, calm cat.” The one Air Force teammates say effectively mixes aggressiveness with a laid-back demeanor.

Meet sophomore Alex Schilling, who has won his first three NCAA starts – Air Force’s first three wins this season – after not playing at all as a freshman and making just two mop-up appearances during the Falcons’ seven-game slump to start 2019-20.

“The way he’s playing is giving us a lot of confidence,” senior assistant captain Brady Tomlak said. “It’s a ripple effect for the team. When you’re confident in the guy behind you, he’s hot and he’s stopping pucks, you’re willing to take more chances on offense side. For us it’s worked for some more goals over the past few games.

“He’s just calm back there at all times. He’s a pretty laid back guy as it is, doesn’t say a ton, but he’s just been calm back there and confident and playing really well for us.”

A history of net gains

If there is one hallmark of Air Force hockey, particularly during the Frank Serratore era, it has been good, if not great, goaltending.

Whether it was Kim Newman, a three-time team MVP in the late 1960s and early ’70s, or Mike Liebich in the early ’90s or Marc Kielkucki a decade later, through more recent standouts Andrew Volkening, Jason Torf, Shane Starrett or Billy Christopoulos, Falcons goaltending is money in the bank.

This year’s preseason question du jour was who will replace Billy the Greek, a two-time team MVP and first-team AHC goalie?

“My first three years here we had top 10 goaltending every single year (between Starrett, now an American Hockey League standout, and Christopoulos), which was huge,” Tomlak said. “We’re never going to be the most offensive team in college hockey, so that was important.

“Before this year, Rocky (junior Zach LaRocque) and Schills didn’t have very many opportunities, even in practice. It was a question mark, but a credit to those guys because they put a ton of work in.

“We were confident the competition would be good for both of them, and whoever came out on top was going to give us a chance to win games every night. The way they carry themselves and the way they push each other gave us a lot more confidence than you might think, regardless of who’s back there.”

Growth opportunities

Not playing at all and getting limited reps in practice might dishearten most college hockey players. Not Schilling, who took advantage of what essentially was a redshirt season.

“Last season, coming in here and having a goalie like Bill was great for me,” Schilling said. “I could be a sponge. His mentorship was great for me, giving me some tips, how he’s changed his game.

“I wasn’t too worried about playing, so I had a good amount of time to use in the weight room. I tried to take advantage where I could. It was good to have a solid chunk of time where I could take a big step physically.

“That was a big emphasis point from the coaching staff, to get stronger and build myself up for this year.”

Schilling said another factor in his growth was practice sessions with Serratore, who works with the team’s goalies.

“He does a great job with all four of the goalies,” Schilling said. “He can identify  what each guy needs to work on. A big emphasis point to correct was I was staying too deep in the net. He got on me right away about challenging the shooter and challenging me to have more determination in my game, which has really helped.”

Schilling’s height (5-foot-11) can work against him at a position being annexed by giants, but his revamped game mitigates much of that.

“He isn’t afraid to be out on top of his crease, looking around bodies and tracking pucks,” Tomlak said. “Our defensemen are doing a good job making sure he can see, and when they haven’t, he’s done a good job finding pucks. When they get there he’s doing a really good job trapping pucks. There haven’t been a ton of rebound chances, and when there are some he’s doing a good job sending them to the corner.”

The results speak for themselves. Schilling has allowed just seven goals in this three starts and has stopped 78 of 85 shots on goal (.918 save percentage). The Falcons allowed 28 goals (three by Schilling in relief, three more into an empty net) in the first seven games.

The offense has flipped the script, too, scoring 11 goals in Schilling’s starts after netting just eight in LaRocque’s seven starts.

“It was just goalie that had a competition, every position had competition coming into the season,” Tomlak said. “Rocky got the first look, and he played well (allowing about 3 goals per game). The losing streak was no fault of Rocky’s, he was keeping us in games. We didn’t give him help.”

As a result, the seven-game skid wasn’t as bad as it appeared, Tomlak added.

“Even after these last three wins, I thought we played better in the two RIT games (2-1 and 1-0 losses) and even the last Arizona State game (a 5-2 defeat with two empty-net goals against).”

I’ve got your back

The backbone of this goalie competition is a mutual respect. Goalie Nation would have it no other way.

“We came into this season as a team, no one is going to replace what or who we had last year,” Schilling said of the dynamic between him and LaRocque, as well as junior Erik Anderson and freshman Austin Park. “We had a great competitive but friendly attitude. We’re supportive of anyone who plays.

“The bottom line is we just want to win. If someone gets hot, keep going with him. If the other guy gets how, go with him. It’s great to have that goalie partner. It can be difficult (in other settings), but this has been great.”

Transition game

The timing for the Falcons’ turnaround is opportune given they travel to play at Robert Morris, somewhat of a surprise leader in Atlantic Hockey with seven league wins already.

The Colonials have undergone an interesting goaltending transition of their own, seeing three-year starter Francis Marotte graduate early and transfer to Clarkson. However, RMU has been riding the hot hand of a grad transfer of its own in Justin Kapelmater, who immigrated from Ferris State.

Air Force and RMU were the only teams in the 11-team AHC needing to break in a new starting goalie. The early returns are promising.

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©First Line Editorial 2019