The postseason lights aren’t out, but they’re awfully dim for Air Force after a 3-2 Atlantic Hockey loss to AIC on Friday night at Cadet Arena.
The Falcons stand six points out of the league’s eighth – and final – playoff spot after Mercyhurst picked up a point in an overtime loss to Army West Point. The task for Air Force (12-19-2, 8-14-1 AHA) now is imperative: take all nine of the remaining points in the season, starting with Saturday’s rematch against the Yellow Jackets (15-12-6, 14-8-1), or see the 2022-23 season end after next weekend’s series at first-place RIT.
Only defenseman Luke Robinson’s goal with 1:36 left in the first prevented the period from being a complete disaster.
Air Force, which outshot its guests 38-19, turned up the pressure in the final two periods and drew within one on Andrew DeCarlo’s putback of a rebound of Chris Hedden’s shot 7:01 into the third period.
The Falcons had a handful of opportunities late in the game in 6-on-5 and 6-on-4 situations, but could not solve Jarrett Fiske (36 saves).
Senior Austin Park started his third consecutive game in net and stopped 16 shots, including AIC’s final 14 of the game.
The game was Air Force’s fifth in the past eight days, and it is 2-3 in that stretch.
Atlantic Hockey honors Lamoureux
Forward Jacques Lamoureux was selected to the Atlantic Hockey Hall of Honor. He is the second former Falcons player, after goaltender Andrew Volkening, so chosen in conjunction with the league’s 20th anniversary celebration.
Lamoureux ended his career as AHA’s second-leading goal scorer (79) despite playing just three seasons. He holds league records for power-play goals (41), game-winning goals (18) and goals-per-game (0.68). He became Atlantic Hockey’s second All-American after his sophomore season, when he pumped in 33 goals among his 53 points. He was an All-AHA pick all three of his seasons and helped the Falcons reach the NCAA Tournament twice.
Note: Air Force will honor its seniors before Saturday’s game, the final home game of the season. In addition to Park, the other seniors are defensemen Brandon Koch and Andrew Kruse, and forwards Blake Bride, Bennett Norlin, Ty Pochipinski and Willie Reim.
©First Line Editorial 2023
