Each week during the Atlantic Hockey season AFAFlightPath.com will take a look at Air Force’s upcoming opponent. This time it’s Sacred Heart for a rare four-games-in-five-days series.
The schedule
Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 5 p.m., Monday at 7 p.m. and Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Cadet Arena
Records
Sacred Heart 3-4-3, 1-1-2 AHA (23 GF, 30 GA); Air Force 3-6-1, 1-2-1 AHA (23 GF, 44 GA)
Overview
It’s not a Stanley Cup Playoff series, but after four games in five days it might feel like one. The two additional games are a result of a postponed trip to the Academy by Sacred Heart last season. Air Force is in the midst of an eight-game homestead, and given how it’s played at home thus far this season that’s a good thing. The Falcons are 2-2 at home, and the one of the losses was Saturday’s 5-4 defeat vs. Bentley in which AFA nearly came all the way back from a 5-1, third-period deficit. … There are 12 AHA points on the line, and if one team can take a majority of them it will position itself to zoom up the conference standings. … Sacred Heart has a couple of non-conference wins against Hockey East schools Boston University and Maine. In conference play it has split a series with Niagara, and then twice beat Mercyhurst in shootouts two weekends ago. … The Pioneers dipped liberally into the transfer portal, adding eight players, including goaltender Justin Robbins (Arizona State). Robbins is 3-3-3, but his other numbers (.915 saves percentage and 2.38 goals-against average) have been outstanding. He has allowed two or fewer goals four times. … Leading scorer Braeden Tuck has nine points and five goals in 10 games. The junior has averaged nearly a point per game in each of his three NCAA seasons. Senior Austin Magera has nine points, and junior defenseman Logan Britt, a transfer from Quinnipiac, has eight. … The teams not only have scored the same amount of goals (23), but their power-play success rates are just .1 apart, with Air Force leading at 9.5 percent. … The Falcons’ penalty kill sits at just 61 percent, while Sacred Heart’s success rate is 70 percent.
Air Force trends
Who are these guys? Six of Air Force’s eight freshmen have played every game so far, and center Andrew DeCarlo was selected Atlantic Hockey’s rookie of the week after his three-assist weekend against Bentley. Another center, Clayton Cosentino has moved onto the top line and is second on the team in scoring with six points.
Keep it close – Six of Air Force’s 10 games have been decided by one goal or ended tied. The Falcons are 3-2-1 in those contests and 2-0-1 in overtime games.
Future is now – The Falcons’ sophomore class is doing a lot of the heavy lifting on offense, having racked up 26 of the team’s 59 points and 15 of the 23 goals. Winger Will Gavin leads in both categories (six goals and seven points). The rest of the scoring is split pretty evenly between the freshmen (18) and juniors (15).
Make every day a Friday (again)! The trend continued last weekend. Air Force won its Friday game to improve to 3-2 on that day. However the Falcons are 0-4-1 on Saturdays. More alarming about the second game has been that they have allowed 31 goals in those five games compared to just 13 on Friday’s. The Falcons also have been limited to just nine goals on the five Saturdays thus far.
©First Line Editorial 2021
