First- and last-minute goals ultimately doomed Air Force in a 6-3 Atlantic Hockey Association loss to Bentley on Sunday
However, the Falcons (0-9-1) made a game out of it after a penalty-induced rough start to a wild third period.
Here are three observations from Air Force’s first game in 22 days (due to a Covid-19 pause):
Sin bin reservations
One of the main issues the Falcons have dealt with this season has been a propensity for taking ill-timed penalties.
They’d surrendered 14 power-play goals in their first nine games on a whopping 45 chances, and they added to that total considerably Sunday. A string of penalties at the end of the second period gave Bentley a carryover 5-on-3 power play to start the third.
Drew Bavaro scored 19 seconds into the period and Dylan Pitera struck 1:19 with a man advantage to stretch a 2-0 lead to 4-0.
Overall, Air Force took 10 penalties, including three minors by co-captain Zach Mirageas.
Air Force doesn’t have the margin for error to continue this trend, particularly when its power play goes 0 for 5.
Battling back
Give Air Force credit, it could have folded its tent in the face of the 4-0 deficit, but it didn’t.
Co-captain Jake Levin redirected a shot by D partner Alex Mehnert just 51 seconds after Pitera’s goal, and assistant captain Shawn Knowlton, who had a second-period goal disallowed because he apparently hit the puck above the Bentley crossbar, struck off a nice cross-slot pass from Thomas Daskas with 9:32 to go. Knowlton’s strike was his third in six games.
Air Force, which generated 20 of its 25 shots in the final two periods, kept the pressure on, but Bentley regained a three-goal lead on Brendan Walkom‘s goal 3:32 later. Still, Air Force wasn’t finished as Max Harper went bar down on Nicholas Grabko (22 saves) with 2:07 to go. Bentley answered with an empty-net goal to cap a seven-goal third.
Net gains
Junior Alex Schilling stopped 24 shots, and aside from a rebound that Pitera scored on, the rest didn’t appear to be his fault.
Bentley’s first goal, just 47 seconds in, came on a turnover on a stretch pass at the Air Force blue line. Its second resulted from an improbable pass from Luke Santerno (three assists) to Brandon Hamlet, who got inside the Air Force D and went upstairs on Schilling.
It remains to be seen if he or senior Zach LaRocque will get the start Monday afternoon, as Air Force continues its four games in seven days trip to the Northeast.
It is the program’s second compact trip in 2021. At the start of the year, Air Force played five in nine days vs. Niagara, Sacred Heart and Mercyhurst.
©First Line Editorial 2021
