Talk about flipping the script.
Air Force continued its recent resurgence with a 5-4 Atlantic Hockey victory against Sacred Heart on Friday night. The victory was the Falcons’ season-high fourth in a row and fifth in seven games .
The victory helped the Falcons keep pace in the AHA race, where they’re seeking to leapfrog Bentley and Canisius to secure at least the eighth and final postseason spot. Air Force is in 10th, one point behind Bentley – which lost in a shootout to AIC – but with three games in hand, and four points back of Canisius, which edged Mercyhurst, 4-3.
Air Force changes the narrative
For two months, Air Force struggled to score goals. They had just 12 in a nine-game losing streak, part of a longer 1-11-1 slump. Now? They’ve pumped in 19 in the past five games.
They went nearly seven games without a power-play goal (an 0-for-26 slump). They had three Friday and have four in the past two games.
They couldn’t score the first goal to save their lives (failing to do so at one point for 11 consecutive games). Now they’ve done it three times in the past five games. And that’s a harbinger of good things because the Falcons are 7-2-1 when that happens.
And, after a season of musical goalies, Balboa has seized the net during the current winning streak. Air Force is the only Division I team in the nation that has had to start four goalies this season, and they’re without the first two that got starts for various reasons.
Balanced attack fuels Falcons
Reim gave Air Force a quick 1-0 when he took a stretch pass from Brennan and beat freshman goalie Brandon Milberg 3:27 in. That was Reim’s fifth goal in the past four games and put him into double digits for the second season in a row.
The Falcons answered early in the second on Brennan’s first power-play strike. Playing on a unit with two other defensemen, Brandon Koch and Luke Rowe, Brennan hammered in a one-timer from the right, his off-wing, circle just 1:58 in.
Sacred Heart again drew even when leading score Neal Shea picked up a turnover at the Falcons’ goal line and inexplicably was left alone. He picked the short-side corner over Balboa’s glove to again tie it.
Air Force took over there. Schwartz cashed in his career-high fourth goal just 27 seconds later, and Hedden struck on the power play with 9:15 to go. The Pioneers drew to one goal two more times, sandwiching another Brennan marker.
Shea, again with all sorts of room to operate, got the final goal with Luke Lush (nine saves), who replaced Milberg (14 saves) after Hedden’s goal, pulled for an extra attacker.
Notes: The teams conclude the series Saturday at 5 p.m. Air Force then returns home to play Canisius on Monday and Tuesday nights, a makeup of a late December series that had to be postponed when the Golden Griffins couldn’t get out of Buffalo due to a winter storm.
©First Line Editorial 2023
