Tuesday was a gut check game for Air Force.

The Falcons showed plenty of fortitude but not enough offense as they fell, 3-1, to Sacred Heart for the third game in a row during the teams’ four-games-in-five-nights marathon.

All three losses were by two goals, and all three featured some eerie similarities, some good, some bad.

If there is any encouragement to be taken, it’s this: the Falcons did not quit, and they played better the more the clock wound.

“Name one guy who cheated the company,” coach Frank Serratore said. “We fought to the buzzer.

“Our will to win was there from start to finish.”

Here are some observations from the Falcons’ final game until the first weekend in December.

The chase is on … and on

For the third game in a row Air Force (4-9-1, 2-5-1) allowed the first goal, or in the case of the past two nights, the first three.

This time, the Pioneers (5-5-3, 3-2-2 AHA) struck first off a rush when Neil Shea split the Falcons defense to score 7:46 into the game. Shea has three goals overall, and two came against Air Force.

“We’re struggling scoring the first goal. That’s a big issue,” co-captain Luke Rowe said. “We’re always chasing in the first period. It’s hard to keep momentum up, to keep energy up all 60 minutes when you’re chasing the scoreboard at the start.

“It’s just little things, like that first goal. I get caught too far outside, I’m a foot to the right. If I’m a foot to the left they don’t get that break, they don’t score that goal and it’s a completely different game.”

Sacred Heart stacked its blue line with three or four skaters in a play to force the Falcons to dump it in. Its strategy worked against an AFA team missing three of its top nine forwards due to injury.

The Pioneers fortified their lead midway through the second period when they scored twice in 52 seconds.

Defenseman Andrius Kulbis-Marino scored his second career goal – both in this series – when he changed the angle of his shot from the high slot. Goaltender Alex Schilling appeared to be screened on the play.

Winger Kevin Lombardi then went down the right wing with some time and space and ripped a shot from the right dot that ended Schilling’s night just 8:06 into the second. Lombardi had goals in all four games.

“(Schilling) knows he’s our guy. He’s a rock back there,” Rowe said. “I’m not going to say it was an off night for him. Maybe we let him down a little bit and he’s facing shots that are coming in with guys in front of him or coming off a stick through screens.”

The bullpen was stellar

Enter junior Austin Park, who returned for this series after missing four games due to an injury he sustained in an exhibition series against Lindenwood last month.

Park stopped all 13 shots he faced, including 11 in the third period, and made 17 saves combined Monday and Tuesday without allowing a goal.

“What can you ask of a goalie? That’s what you need from a guy who comes in cold during the second period and just shuts them out,” Rowe added. “That’s awesome.

“He’s a great guy who works so hard off the ice and in practice. I’m happy to see him get these opportunities and take advantage of them.”

Third-period afterburner

The Falcons demonstrated something else over the course of this series, actually a couple of somethings.

First, they have plenty left in the tank for the third period. Consider they outscored Sacred Heart, 1-0, in the final 20 minutes in each of games 1, 3 and 4.

On Tuesday, Rowe tallied with 1:48 to go and Park pulled for an extra attacker. That came on the heels of the Falcons killing off their second 5-on-3 of the night.

“The third period is that back against the wall, you’ve got to start swinging back, and that’s what we’ve been doing,” Rowe said. “We need to start doing that earlier in the game, right at the drop of the puck.”

Perhaps the most encouraging development in the series is the fact Air Force killed off all 20 Sacred Heart penalties. Given some of its early season struggles, particularly against Michigan State and Denver, that is a big one in the plus column. A penalty kill that was hovering in the 50 percent neighborhood now stands at 73 percent.

“(Associate head coach) Joe Doyle has an incredible system,” Rowe said. “We were so well prepared. We knew everything Sacred Heart was going to do on their power play and we knew how to handle it.

“Then we have guys like Jake Marti, who didn’t finish the game because he blocked seven shots, Luke Robinson, Bennett Norlin, Austin Schwartz, Willie Reim, the list goes on. We have 27 guys in our locker room, and every one is willing to eat pucks and eat shots in front of the net and get in their lanes. … The boys know a big kill swings momentum.”

The PK is one sign of what the Falcons are trying to build.

“For it being the fourth game in five days there was good tempo, good pace,” Serratore said. “We came hard the whole game.

“Give them credit, they’re a good team. I really believe our team is keeping with a goal we wanted to accomplish – being stronger mentally. We went down swinging.”

Notes

Marti left the game after blocking a shot with his upper body during a first-period 5-on-3. The Falcons lost top-line winger Nate Horn earlier in the series, and were without third-line center Ty Pochipinski and defenseman Dalton Weigel all series. The fourth line was comprised of defensemen Jasper Lester and Andrew Kruse and one-time recruit turned video manager turned rostered player Billy Duma. … The Falcons went 3-for-17 on the power play over the weekend. … Air Force has one more series left in 2021 – at home vs. Canisius on Dec. 3-4.

©First Line Editorial 2021