The best offense is … a good defense?
It was for Air Force on Friday night as the Falcons drummed Holy Cross, 7-2, in an Atlantic Hockey Conference game at Cadet Arena.
Four defensemen scored goals, two during a five-goal outburst in the third period, and the blue line accounted for 10 points. The triumph also gave Falcons coach Frank Serratore his 400th victory at the Academy.
“The third period, if we could clone that period, I’d take that all day, all night,” Serratore said. “Tonight I thought we were just OK in the first and second periods, but in the third it all came together.”
Two freshmen blue liners – Andrew Kruse and Brandon Koch – scored their first career goals. Junior D-men Zach Mirageas and Jake Levin also struck, and fellow junior Alex Mehnert contributed three assists, Mirageas had two, and a sixth D, Carter Ekberg, also had an assist.
“Those freshmen – Koch and Kruse – what a pair they already are,” Serratore said. “They’re not playing like freshmen.”
Captain Matt Pulver, who had two assists, scored the winning goal 1:33 into the third period on a rebound from the hash marks. Fellow senior Brady Tomlak and junior Marshall Bowery also had goals. Pulver’s tally was his team-high sixth, while Tomlak’s was his fifth.
Sophomore Alex Schilling made 18 saves for the Falcons (5-8-2), who have points in seven of their past eight games.
“(Schilling) has a good calming demeanor for a goalie,” Serratore said. “We got caught up ice a few times and he made big saves.”
Holy Cross seized a 2-1 first-period lead on goals by Alex Peterson and Pete Kessel, sandwiched around Kruse’s tally midway through the first.
Mirageas’ slap shot from the high slot tied it with 8:29 left in the second before the fireworks began in the third.
Koch scored on a power play two minutes after Pulver’s goal, and Bowery made it 5-2 just four minutes later. Levin and Tomlak scored in a three-minute span in the final 7:13. Tomlak also won 10 of 11 face-offs.
The seven goals were as many as the Falcons had in their first six games.
Add it up, and Serratore became just the seventh active college hockey coach with as many as 400 wins at their current school.
“It’s a number. What’s more important is the number five (wins on the season),” he said.
©First Line Editorial 2019
