At some point, playing from behind was going to catch up to Air Force’s hockey team. That point came Saturday afternoon.

The Falcons fell behind for the eighth time in eight games, and unlike their past three games — all wins — they couldn’t overcome it in a 4-2 loss to AIC in an Atlantic Hockey game at Springfield, Mass.

One afternoon earlier, Air Force (4-4-0, 1-1-0) rallied to tie the score in the third period on Brendan Gibbons’ goal. The Falcons then won it in overtime (2-1) on Austin Schwartz’s power-play strike in a 4-on-3 scenario.

One day after stopping 25 of 26 Yellowjackets shots, Guy Blessing made 23 more saves on Saturday.

AIC took a 1-0 lead just 4 minutes in on a goal by Danny Weight, one of three Colorado College transfers in the AIC lineup. The Falcons drew even on Nick Sajevic’s rebound goal in the second. It was the freshman’s first NCAA goal.

AIC took the lead for good with two goals in the first 3:05, the second of which came off the stick of former Tiger Noah Serdachny.

Defenseman Chris Hedden pulled the Falcons to one with 4:31 to play, but AIC (1-4-1, 1-2-1) wrapped it up with an empty-net goal.

The Falcons’ focus now turns to reclaiming the Pike’s Peak Trophy from Colorado College next weekend. The Tigers host the opening game of the two-game series on Friday before the second game Saturday night at Cadet Arena.

CC has held the trophy since 2018. Air Force must either win both games or win and tie to reclaim it.

©First Line Editorial 2024