Air Force had a golden opportunity to steal at least a point, and possibly more, on Saturday, but Niagara’s goal with six seconds left in regulation ended that and left the Falcons with a bittersweet split of the teams’ Atlantic Hockey series.
The 2-1 loss came on a night when senior goaltender Austin Park played the best game of his career, stopping 29 Niagara shots. The dagger that eluded him was a one-time missile from the right dot by Olivier Gauthier. That came off a face-off win back to the high slot, where defenseman Noah Carlin fielded the puck and found Gauthier wide open.
That was in contrast to much of the game, where open ice was hard to come by.
“We were in the position we were in because of our goalie,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said. “Niagara was the better team tonight. Park made a couple of gigantic saves to keep us in it.”
One troubling trend for Air Force
For the 17th time in 24 games an opponent scored the first goal on the Falcons (7-15-2, 3-10-1 AHA). For the 13th of those times the outcome was a loss.
“They had more jump all night,” Serratore said. “It wasn’t that our guys weren’t trying, they were. We were sluggish for whatever reason.”
This time, defenseman Josef Mysak, who came into the game with four goals in 73 career games and none this season, scored on a shot from the top inside right circle with 5:22 to go in the second period.
The Falcons generated some chances but could not finish until Will Gavin redirected a Brandon Koch shot from the top of the right circle with 4:49 to go in the game. That play was made by center Andrew DeCarlo’s puck retrieval and no-look backhand pass to Koch.
🚨GOAL🚨 From Will Gavin ties it up 1-1 in the 3rd. pic.twitter.com/uD1dp8QrD0
— Air Force Hockey (@AF_HKY) January 22, 2023
That was the only dent against Chad Veltri, who made 29 saves for the Purple Eagles (12-10-2, 6-8-2 AHA).
Falcons getting more defensive
Despite the loss, a trio of positive trends began to emerge for Air Force over the weekend.
The team’s defense showed dramatic improvement. The five goals allowed to Niagara were the fewest the Falcons have allowed since a split with Bentley on Nov. 11-12. Since then the weekend totals had been 6, 9, 6, 7 and 9.
Koch was a big contributor to the improved defensive effort, making a couple of huge blocks and consistently moving the puck out of harm’s way.
Air Force also did a better job sustaining offensive-zone pressure in stretches. It might not have consistently been there as much as the Falcons would like, but it was there. That is a huge key to how Air Force wants to – and needs to – play to generate offense.
And third, Park played more confidently than he had in his first three starts. Consider, his goals against have gone from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 in those four games. Co-captain Willie Reim said there hasn’t been one particular thing the Falcons collectively did better that led to the decrease in goals allowed.
“It helps when our goalie plays like he did tonight,” Reim said. “There were many times tonight we said, ‘There’s no way he can make that save,’ and he makes the save. When you have that confidence and ability, you can make a mistake and nobody notices. We’ve been lucky with our goaltending, we just have to start putting the puck in the. net a little more.”
When Air Force had defensive breakdowns Saturday that led to breakaways or odd-man rushes, Park made some critical saves. These included:
- A diving glove save to keep the score 1-0 with 4:36 left in the second period.
- A 1-on-0 stop just 22 seconds into the third period when both defenders got caught out of position.
- A gem on a penalty kill 4:50 in after Koch had blocked the initial shot.
- Another glove save with 5:50 left in the game.
“You’re here for three, three and half years and you’re not getting too many looks and you’re thrown into it, it’s an adjustment,” Koch said of the goalie. “We didn’t really help him the first few games, but he stood on his head this weekend.”
On deck: Service academy smackdown
Next up, the Falcons travel to West Point, N.Y., for the series of the season against Army. It sounds as if Park again will be the starter.
“Parkie played both games last weekend, and tonight was his best,” Reim said. “He was settled in and adjusting with the team. Everyone was reading off one another better. It’s good for going into West Point.”
Still, the Falcons are realistic about their position. They need to make up ground just to hit eighth place in Atlantic Hockey and have hope of continuing their season into March. They trail ninth-place Bentley by four points but have two games in hand. They’re seven points behind eighth-place Canisius.
“We’ve got a big mountain to climb, and it only gets tougher at Army,” Serratore concluded.
Notes: Freshman center Mason McCormick was suspended by Atlantic Hockey for Saturday’s game for a cross-checking penalty with 1:19 to play in Friday’s 6-3 victory against Niagara. Teammate Blake Bride absorbed a series of cross checks from a Niagara player, which precipitated several skirmishes. … In addition to goaltenders Guy Blessing and Maiszon Balboa, the Falcons played without four more injured regulars: defenseman Luke Robinson and forwards Brian Adams, Lucas Coon and Austin Schwartz. Serratore said during a pregame interview that there is a chance Adams, Robinson and Schwartz will join McCormick in returning to the lineup next weekend at Army West Point.
©First Line Editorial 2023
