Air Force Academy
Wayne State
Wayne State beats Air Force, 5-3
1/5/2003 12:00:00 AM | Hockey
Jan. 5, 2003
Dustin Kingston scored two goals to lead Wayne State to a 5-3 win over Air Force in a College Hockey America game Sunday, Jan. 5, at the Cadet Ice Arena.
Wayne State took three points in the series with a win and a tie and improved to 7-11-1 overall and 2-3-1 in the CHA. Air Force fell to 8-11-1 overall and 2-5-1 in the CHA. Both teams are tied for fourth with five league points.
"They are a very experienced team and they are the two-time league tournament champions," head coach Frank Serrratore said. "So they are a good team. We played plenty hard, but we didn't play very smart. We made some big glaring mistakes and when you do that against a good team you get beat 5-3. We died of self-inflicted wounds and we need to make less mistakes to win."
For the second straight game, Wayne State lit the lamp first. Derek McKay scored a power-play goal from Keith Stanich and Steve Kovalchik at 4:32 of the first period on a rebound. Two minutes later, the Falcons answered with their own power-play goal. Scott Zwiers tipped in a pass from Andy Berg at 6:26 to tie the game. Ryan Wiggins picked up his eighth assist of the season on the play. The Falcons took the lead when Shane Saum scored a power-play goal at 15:38 of the first period. Saum tipped in another Berg pass for his third of the season. Defenseman Steve Mead collected his team-leading 15th assist of the season.
With four seconds left in the first period, Wayne State tied the score at 2-2. Derek MacKay took a shot from just inside the red line that was saved by Mike Polidor, but the rebound kicked out in front for Kingston who scored his fifth of the season.
Twenty-two seconds into the second period, the Warriors took a 3-2 lead on Jack Redwood's goal. WSU won the faceoff and Redwood scored on a rebound from Marc St. Jean and Nathan Rosychuk.
Two minutes into the third period, the Warriors took a 4-2 lead on Billy Collins' short-handed goal. With Tyler Kindle in the penalty box, Collins intercepted a pass in the neutral and skated in uncontested, beating Polidor unassisted. Just over a minute later, the Falcons closed the gap to 4-3 on Josh Priewe's first career goal. On a rush up ice, Mike Carrano's shot was saved, but Priewe buried the rebound. Kingston's second goal of the night gave the Warriors a 5-3 advantage at the 5:38 mark. Jason Durbin won the face-off and kicked the puck back to Kingston on the set play.
Wayne State was called for too many men on the ice with 3:52 remaining and the Falcons pulled Polidor from the net with 2:36 left, giving the Falcons a two-man advantage for 44 seconds. Polidor remained off the ice even after the power play expired. The Warriors cleared the puck three times and the Falcons had several scoring chances but could not beat the 2002 CHA Player of the Year, David Guerrera.
Wayne State out-shot Air Force, 17-4, in the second period and 38-26 in the game. The Falcons were 2-for-7 on the power play while WSU was 1-for-3. Polidor made 33 saves while Guerrera had 23. Polidor made 74 saves in the series and has now made 30 or more saves in nine of his 19 starts.
"We have Niagara and Army coming in the next two weeks and those will all be big games," Serratore said. "I like to try to think of the positives and I like to think about what our team can be by the end of the season and not what we are right now. The effort is there, we just need to play smarter hockey."
Air Force continues its six-game home stand against CHA rival Niagara, Friday-Saturday, Jan. 10-11, at 7:05 p.m. Mountain Time each night. Both games will be broadcast on the radio in Colorado Springs (KBZC 1300 AM) and will be available on the internet (www.AirForceSports.com) and via the telephone (TeamLine 1-800-846-4700.
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