A game of tag was played in the second Atlantic Hockey semifinal on Friday night at Utica, N.Y.

Fortunately for Air Force, the Falcons are still it.

Three times the Falcons scored go-ahead goals after RIT had tied the score, including twice in a wild third period, en route to a stirring 4-3 victory that sends the youthful birds into a the AHA final against regular-season champion AIC on Saturday. Win that and the Falcons will play in another tournament starting next weekend – the NCAA.

The top defense pair of Brandon Koch and Luke Rowe accounted for five points, and Koch tallied the final two Falcons goals, each of which promptly answered Tigers strikes in the third period.

“The game was how we expected it,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said. “I would have been surprised if it wasn’t an exciting, entertaining game, and it was.”

Back and forth

The game of back-and-forth was started by Will Gavin‘s laser-beam, top-shelf shot over the short-side shoulder of RIT’s Tommy Scarfone (22 saves). Rowe’s stretch pass off the left-wing boards sprung Gavin, and the Falcons’ top goal scorer (16) did the rest with 6:22 left in the first.

RIT (18-16-4) tied it the first time on Aiden Hansen-Bukata‘s second goal of the season. He collected a rebound that caromed off an Air Force defender and scored on Alex Schilling (24 saves), who had come out to cut down the angle on the initial shot.

The Tigers had an excellent chance to seize a lead late in the second period when they got a shorthanded breakaway, but Air Force (16-16-3) compromised the shot with an aggressive back check. Moments later, freshman center Andrew DeCarlo buried a third-chance rebound off of Scarfone’s left leg pad with just 34 seconds left in the second.

“That was a pivotal point,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “We had a chance to score and we didn’t get a shot. Then they got that late goal. That’s a two-goal swing.”

The third period featured a three-goal outburst in just 1:21.

RIT co-captain Dan Willett scored a power-play goal 4:15 in when his left point shot trickled between Schilling’s pads. But the Tigers took an offensive zone penalty 30 seconds later. Just 14 seconds into the man-advantage, Koch one timed a pass from Rowe past Scarfone to make it 3-2. But just 37 seconds later, Grady Hobbs kept the puck on a 2-on-1 and beat Schilling short side from the left dot.

Panic time? Hardly.

“We have such a mature group,” Rowe related. “On the bench it’s just steady. … We just stick to our five-man play.”

Koch applies finishing move

Koch broke the final deadlock about four and a half minutes later, with 10:07 to go in the game, when took a pass from Rowe at the left dot and fired the puck top shelf.

“I got a pass from Rowe, there was a good screen out front, and the goalie was looking away,” Koch said of the winning goal.

The seven goals were one more than the teams combined to score in a series split at Cadet Arena three weeks ago.

“This is just the drive we have,” Koch said. “You saw it last week (at Army). We have a bunch of guys pulling their weight. We’re getting shots in volume.”

From there, the Falcons tightened up and held on despite RIT outshooting them 8-3 in the third.

“This team responded,” Serratore said. “When they came back, we responded and got that all-important next goal. That says a lot about this group. I couldn’t be more proud of my players and my coaching staff.”

Wilson said the Falcons’ responses had an effect on his team.

“The resilience for them, those quick goals, took some life out of us,” he said.

AIC on deck

Next up, the Falcons play the one team in the league they didn’t register a victory against. AIC swept the teams’ only series at Springfield, Mass., on the first weekend of 2022. Air Force nearly rallied in the second game after going down 3-0.

Given that Air Force was projected to finish ninth in the league and that they’re playing for the conference championship, that might not matter. Friday’s win increased Air Force’s record at the AHA final four to 15-2 over the years. Frankly, they’re money when they reach this point.

“We’ll look at a couple things they do and focus on some internal stuff, what can we clean up,” Rowe said.

The Falcons keep giving themselves chances. They took four points from RIT on the regular season’s final weekend to clinch a first-round bye. They swept arch-rival Army on the road. And Friday they tamed the Tigers again to set themselves up for the most improbable shot an NCAA berth they’ve had.

©First Line Editorial 2022