Air Force Academy
Canisius
Canisius beats Air Force, 3-1
11/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Nov. 4, 2009
BUFFALO, N.Y . - Vincent Scarsella scored two goals, including an empty netter with 25 seconds remaining, as Canisius beat Air Force, 3-1, in an Atlantic Hockey Association game, Saturday afternoon, Oct. 31, at the Buffalo State Sports Arena in Buffalo, N.Y.
Air Force suffered its first AHA loss of the season and fell to 2-5 overall and 2-1 in the league. Canisius improved to 2-5 overall and 1-2 in the league.
Air Force got off to a rough start early in the first period. Canisius' first shot on goal got past Andrew Volkening just 54 seconds into the first period. Vincent Scarsella scored on a centering pass from behind the net by Cory Conacher. After the goal, Air Force was called for two penalties, but killed the four minutes of Griff power-play action. Air Force out-shot Canisius, 12-9, in the first period and had a 12-5 advantage in the final 12 minutes of the period.
The Falcons tied the game midway through the second period. On the power-play, Jacques Lamoureux took a shot from the goal line to the goaltender's right and the shot hit Dan Morrison in the shoulder and went in to tie the game at 1-1. Canisius broke the tie with a goal early in the third period. On a rush, Chris Forsman fed Conacher in the slot who scored his fourth of the season at the 5:41 mark. Air Force pulled Volkening in favor of an extra skater with 1:55 remaining, but it was Canisius that scored. Scarsella intercepted a pass at the Air Force blue line and scored the empty-netter with 25 seconds remaining.
Air Force outshot Canisius in every period and 42-30 in the game. Volkening had 27 saves while Morrison had 41 in the game. AFA was 1-for-4 on the power play while Canisius was 0-for-3.
"This might have been the best game we played this season," head coach Frank Serratore. "Obviously, you can't get scored on in the first minute. That is inexcusable. After we got the wakeup call, we played pretty well. We had a lot of chances on the power play, our defensemen did a good job getting the puck out of the zone and our coverage was must better. Volkening was very good, but Morrison was outstanding. We did an awful lot of things well. When you have 42 shots on net, you have to get more than one goal. When you only score one goal, you have to play perfect and that is very hard to do."
The same two teams conclude the series Sunday, Nov. 1, at 3:05 p.m. EST in Buffalo, N.Y. --30--
