A spirited rally was too little too late for Air Force on Friday night in a 4-2 Atlantic Hockey loss to Canisius at Buffalo, N.Y.
The Falcons (10-13-2, 8-9-2 AHA) stayed close for two periods before allowing a pair of goals in the first half of the third that staked the Golden Griffins (13-10-3, 10-7-2) to a 4-0 lead.
That was the end of senior Alex Schilling‘s night in goal, but the move also lit a fire under the Falcons, who struck twice in the final 7:38 and had several more chances to get even closer in the closing minutes. The loss was their first in five games against Canisius.
Parker Brown scored his fourth of the season off a nice pass from Luke Rowe, who was stationed at the top of the right circle. His seam pass found Brown the left dot, and the sophomore had plenty of room to shoot on Jacob Barczewski (29 saves).
The Golden Griffins’ Jack Lyons was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for a hit from behind on Mitchell Digby with about four minutes left. That eventually led to a 6-on-3 Air Force goal by Clayton Cosentino, selected Atlantic Hockey’s rookie of the month earlier this week, with 3:38 to go. That was Cosentino’s fifth goal of the season.
The Falcons had more opportunities after that with a 6-on-4 resulting from backup goalie Guy Blessing being pulled for an extra attacker but could not cash any more in.
The loss was just the second in seven games for the surging Falcons, but it came against a team it stood just three points behind in the conference standings entering the game. Canisius (33 points) jumped up to second place, while Air Force (27) held steady in sixth, the cutoff line for a first-round bye in the AHA playoffs.
Air Force came out hot, outshooting the hosts 14-7 in the first period. But Canisius took a lead midway through the frame on Max Kouznetsov‘s power-play goal at 9:49. Canisius carried more of the play in the second and added a late goal on Mitchell Martan‘s shot from the top of the right circle that beat Schilling (18 saves) on the blocker side. Martan alertly avoided a check before unloading his scoring strike.
Defensive breakdowns led to two more Golden Griffins goals in a four-minute stretch in the first half of the third period that extended their lead to 4-0. Lincoln Erne‘s stretch pass found Simon Gravel behind the AFA defense and Gravel wasted no time scoring 5:13 in. Alex Ambrosio tipped in a goalmouth pass from Ryan Miotto, who was just outside the right dot, past Schilling with at least three Air Force defenders in the vicinity.
Notes: The Falcons had a 31-25 shots on goal edge. They went 1-for-6 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill. … The teams wrap up the series Saturday at 5 p.m.
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