Freshman Willie Reim‘s power-play goal 6:21 into the third period sparked Air Force to a 3-1 victory over Mercyhurst in the opener of the teams’ best-of-3 Atlantic Hockey Association playoff series Friday night.
Reim scored amidst a crowd in front of Lakers goalie Garrett Metcalf‘s doorstep.
Reim and junior Marshall Bowery each had a goal and an assist, senior Brady Tomlak scored a short-handed, empty-net goal with 35 seconds to play and sophomore Alex Schilling stopped 16 of 17 shots.
“We came from behind, we showed our resiliency,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore.
A win either Saturday or Sunday at Cadet Ice Arena will advance the Falcons to an AHA quarterfinal series at RIT next weekend.
Firing away
Just as they did two weeks ago against Mercyhurst, the Falcons (11-18-6) rolled up a massive shots on goal edge, this time 40-17. But Metcalf (37 saves) again was up to the task.
Bowery tied it with 36 seconds to play in the second period, when he cashed in a rebound on Metcalf’s doorstep. The goal was the junior’s team-high 10th and it came on Air Force’s 23rd shot.
“It was huge to get that goal with less than a minute left,” Serratore said. “Metcalf made us work for it. Hats off to him.”
That offset Mercyhurst (5-28-2) seizing the all-important first lead on Carver Watson‘s goal with 4:48 to play in the first period.
Schilling was knocked over by a Laker who had been run into by a Falcon on the scoring play, which came on Mercyhurst’s second shot.
Going back for thirds
Reim’s tally came after fellow freshman Luke Rowe‘s shot found Metcalf. Bowery gathered the rebound and fired another shot at the senior. Another stop, but Metcalf could not thwart Reim, who also scored the winning goal against Mercyhurst in the Saturday game two weekends ago.
Tomlak’s goal came from deep in the Falcons zone on a PK.
In addition to the power-play goal, Air Force also killed off all five Lakers power plays.
“I thought they did a way better job of drawing penalties, selling them, than we did,” Serratore said. “Our penalty kill stepped up big time.”
©First Line Editorial 2020
