Army beats Air Force, 2-1

Jan. 18, 2003

A classic battle of two evenly matched service academy hockey teams resulted in Army's 2-1 win over Air Force, Saturday, Jan. 18, at the Cadet Ice Arena at the Air Force Academy.

In the last 12 games between Air Force and Army, just two have been decided by more than two goals and six have been decided by one goal. Air Force has had the upper hand in the series under sixth-year head coach Frank Serratore. The Falcons entered tonight's game with a 9-1-1 record in the last five years vs. Army.

A physical, up-tempo game got the season-high crowd of 2,409 excited right away with a skirmish in front of the Army net midway through the first period. The two teams combined for 25 penalties for 58 minutes in the game.

"Hey, this was a great college hockey game," Serratore said. "Both teams battled and played hard. Our inability to score even-strength goals is killing us. You aren't going to win very many games when you only score one goal. Rob Riley (Army's coach) is going to sleep better than Frank Serratore tonight."

After a scoreless first period, Army struck first with a power-play goal from Nic Serre at 5:14 of the second period. Chris MacLeod made the pass from the corner and Serre scored with a slap shot from the top of the circle that hit goaltender Mike Polidor and rolled into the far corner.

Air Force tied the score early in the third period on a power-play goal by Andy Berg, the national leader in that category with 13. A play familiar to Falcon fans, Steve Mead made the pass across the ice to the top of the circle and Berg's one-timer beat Brad Roberts glove side. Berg collected his 18th goal of the season while Mead picked up his 17th assist and Scott Zwiers notched hit 15th.

Four minutes later, Army scored the eventual game-winner. Air Force tried to clear the puck from behind the net, but the puck hit a glass support and bounced off to Serre in the faceoff circle. Just as Polidor got back into the net, Serre's wrister slid inside the far post for a 2-1 Army advantage with 13:45 remaining.

Each team had several chances in final period, but the goaltenders stole the show. In the final two minutes, Air Force cycled the puck and created some quality scoring opportunities, but could not beat Roberts, Army's freshman goaltender. Roberts finished the game with 42 saves while Polidor made 26 for Air Force.

The Falcons out-shot the Black Knights, 44-28, in the game, but many of the shots came from the point. Air Force had 21 shots that came from beyond the top of the circle while Army had three. Air Force was just 1-for-9 on the power play while Army was 1-for-5.

With the loss Air Force fell to 8-14-1 and is now winless in its last six games. Army broke a two-game losing streak and improved to 7-11-0 overall this season.

The same two teams conclude the series on Sunday, at 7:05 p.m. at the Cadet Ice Arena.

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