Air Force Academy
American International (AHA Best of 3)
Air Force takes game one from AIC, 6-1
3/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - Scott Holm scored two goals and all four lines lit the lamp as Air Force beat AIC, 6-1, in the first game of a best-of-three Atlantic Hockey Conference series, Friday, March 6, at the Academy's Cadet Ice Arena. Air Force improved to 15-19-4 overall this season while AIC fell to 4-24-7. Game two of the best-of-three playoff series is Saturday, March 7, at 7:05 pm MT at the Cadet Ice Arena.
Air Force opened the scoring at 4:32 of the first period. Tyler Ledford's shot was saved and Erik Baskin collected the rebound. His shot was redirected by A.J. Reid in the slot for his ninth goal of the season. The Falcons then took a 3-0 lead with two goals in a span of 45 seconds. Freshman Ben Kucera scored his fourth of the season at the 12:02 mark. Will Vosejpka and Jordan Himley kept the puck alive in the corner and Himley found Kucera in the slot. Just 45 seconds later, the Falcons' top line scored as Holm gave the Falcons a 3-0 lead. Dan Weissenhofer kept the puck in the zone and Chad Demers fed Holm in the slot. Late in the period, AIC got on the board. Austin Orszuluk scored his team-leading 22nd goal of the season from his linemates Johno May and Alexander MacMillan at 16:22. After Orszulak's goal, the Falcons were called for consecutive penalties, but killed four straight minutes of AIC power-play time.
AIC opened the second period on the power play, but the Falcons killed it. Once back to even strength, Air Force scored two goals in a span of 38 seconds for a 5-1 lead. Junior Ben Carey scored his third of the season at 5:59. Kucera chipped the puck into the zone and Max Hartner won a battle in the corner. Hartner skated the puck off the wall and sent it toward the net. Carey batted it in for a 4-1. On the next shift, Holm's second of the game gave the Falcons a 5-1 lead. Tyler Rostenkowski gave the puck to Cole Gunner in the neutral zone and Holm skated into the zone. His wrister from the high slot beat Alex Murray high glove side.
Early in the third period, freshman defenseman Phil Boje scored his sixth of the season on the power play. Reid took a pass from Ledford and then sent a cross-ice pass to Boje on the right side. His wrister whistled just under the cross bar for a 6-1 lead at the 1:20 mark of the third. Along with all four lines, and a defenseman, scoring in the game, 14 of the 18 skaters scored a point for the Falcons.
"I am happy with everything that transpired tonight," head coach Frank Serratore said. "We played with a sense of urgency. But you have to in the playoffs. AIC has a good power play and a good top line and they got some chances. But when they did, Chris (Truehl) was there to make the saves. We can savor this one tonight, but we have to get back to work on Saturday. We were in this same spot last season and the story did not have a happy ending. We can't let that happen again."
Air Force outshot AIC, 36-25. AFA was 1-for-5 on the power play while AIC was 0-for-4. Chris Truehl made 24 saves for the Falcons while Alex Murray made 28 for the Yellow Jackets. Jacob Caffrey played the final 8:41 in goal for the Yellow Jackets and made two saves.
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