Air Force Academy
American International
AIC beats Air Force, 5-3
10/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Oct. 22, 2010
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - AIC overcame a 2-0 deficit for a 5-3 win over Air Force in an Atlantic Hockey Association game Friday, Oct. 22, at the Academy's Cadet Ice Arena. AIC earned its first win of the season and improved to 1-3 overall and 1-3 in the AHA. Air Force fell to 0-4 overall and 0-2 in the league.
For the second straight game, Air Force scored the first two goals of the contest. Freshman Jason Fabian scored his first career goal at the 10:46 mark for a 1-0 lead. AIC goalie Ben Meisner came out of the net and tried to clear the puck. Instead, he passed to Fabian at the top of the right circle and the freshman scored into the empty-net. The Falcons took a 2-0 lead 22 seconds in to the second period. Kyle DeLaurell made a pass from behind the net to Derrick Burnett who scored his first of the season.
AIC then scored the next four goals of the game. Michael Penny scored from Tom Mele on the power play. Mele made a drop pass to Penny in the slot for a wrister that beat AFA goalie Jason Torf at 6:28. Four minutes later, Richard Leitner won a faceoff in the offensive zone and took the puck right to the net and scored his first of the year. The Yellow Jackets took the lead for good at 17:12 when Adam Pleskach scored his second of the year. On a three-on-two rush, Nielsson Arcibal fed Pleskach in the slot for a 3-2 AIC lead.
The Yellow Jackets took a 4-2 lead at 4:38 of the third period when Tomas Benovic scored on a slap shot from the top of the right circle. Air Force was on the power play late in the third period and pulled the goaltender for a two-man advantage. The move paid off as Tim Kirby scored on a slap shot from the point with 1:34 remaining. Burnett won a faceoff and Adam McKenzie gave the puck to Kirby at the center point. The Falcons regained the momentum in the game, but it was short-lived as Arcibal scored an empty-netter with 47 seconds left.
Air Force outshot AIC, 44-21 overall and 21-7 in the third period. Torf made 16 saves for the Falcons while Meisner had 41 for the Yellow Jackets. Air Force was 1-for-5 on the power play while AIC was 1-for-2.
"The bottom line is we had a two-goal lead and we didn't get it done," head coach Frank Serratore said. "It is all about putting pucks in the net and keeping them out and they did a better job of that than we did. We will win games when we deserve to win games and right now we don't. When we become a difficult team to play against, then things might go our way."
The same two teams conclude the series on Saturday, Oct. 23, at Cadet Ice Arena.
