The beauty of scoring every other goal in a hockey game is that if you get the first one and the last one, you’ll win.
That was all that mattered for Air Force in its 4-3 victory Friday night at Cadet Arena. The Falcons edged a pesky Niagara team that three times made up one-goal deficits.
Brady Tomlak‘s power-play goal with 2:51 to play was the winner. It capped a performance in which the Falcons (7-10-4, 7-6-4-3 AHC) outshot their visitors by a whopping 39-15 and carried the play much of the night.
Early in the season the Falcons struggled on the power play, getting just eight goals when a man up before Christmas. But that wasn’t a problem Friday as they struck twice in five tries, the second time in three games they’ve had multiple PPGs.
Junior Marshall Bowery returned from a three-game absence due to an upper body injury and scored for the fourth game in a row that he’s played in. Bowery’s strike, on the power play, came with 13 seconds left in the first period.
Niagara (4-13-4, 4-7-4-2 AHC) evened it up on defenseman John Hill‘s first goal of the season midway through the second.
Through two periods, the Falcons had limited the Purple Eagles to only nine shots on goal. The visitors didn’t generate a lot of shots in the third either, but they made them count in a wild period.
After Air Force freshman Blake Bride‘s first NCAA goal made it 2-1 4:16 in, Niagara countered with a power-play goal by Justin Kendall 1:54 later.
Freshman defenseman Brandon Koch, who had assists on Air Force’s first two goals, then scored his third of the season with 5:46 to play. His three-point night was a career-high.
But Niagara scored 1:58 later on Alex Truscott‘s shorthanded goal to even it up again before Tomlak got the decisive tally.
Alex Schilling made 12 saves for the Falcons, while Brian Wilson stopped 35 shots for Niagara.
Notable
Defenseman Zach Mirageas and forward Matt Pulver each had two assists for the Falcons. … Tomlak (19-5) and freshman Luke Manning (11-3) led Air Force’s dominance on the dot. The Falcons won 45 of 65 face-offs (70 percent).
©First Line Editorial 2020
