Air Force Academy
Army West Point
Falcons beat Army, 3-1
11/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Sophomore Dan Bailey's first career goal was the game-winner as Air Force beat Army, 3-1, in an Atlantic Hockey Conference game Saturday, Nov. 5, at Tate Rink in West Point, N.Y. The two teams split the two-game series as Army won game one, 4-2.
The Black Knights (4-3-1, 4-2 AHC) dominated play in the first period, out-shooting the Falcons 11-1 in the first 15 minutes. Army held a 13-4 shot advantage in the first period, but Falcon goalie Shane Starrett stopped all 13 and the game was scoreless after the first 20 minutes.
The second period was much different as the Falcons started to take more of the play to the Black Knights. With just over five minutes left in the period, Tyler Ledford forced a turnover behind the Army net and fed Matt Serratore out front. Serratore's shot hit the post and the game was still scoreless. However, just a couple minutes later the Falcons got on the board. Dylan Abood kept the puck in the zone and Evan Giesler sent a pass through the slot to Erik Baskin who was crashing the net. Baskin netted his second goal of the series to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead with 2:53 left in the second.
Early in the third period, Army tied the game when Tyler Pham scored on a short-handed breakaway at 5:24. Later in the period, the Falcons regained the lead when Kyle Haak won an offensive zone faceoff and Dan Bailey took a shot from the left point that found its way through traffic. Bailey's first career goal put the Falcons up 2-1 with 4:29 left. Army pulled its goalie with 1:25 left and Air Force's Matt Serratore sealed the win with an empty-net goal.
Army outshot Air Force, 30-24, in the game. Air Force was 0-for-2 on the power play while Army was 0-for-3. Neither team scored a power-play goal in the series. Shane Starrett made 29 saves in the game including 13 in the first period when the Falcons were outshot, 13-4. Parker Gahagen made 21 for the Black Knights.
"This is a really, really good Army team, maybe the best they have ever had," head coach Frank Serratore said. "They are fast, very deliberate and firm in everything they do and they have a very good goalie. They were all over us in the first and we had to weather the storm. Credit Shane Starrett because we could have easily been down two goals early, but he kept us in it. This was a great road win. Army is going to win a lot of games this season."
Air Force (4-3-1, 2-2 AHC) returns home for a two-game conference series against RIT, Nov. 11-12. Friday's game will start at 7:35 pm MT while Saturday's game will start at 3:05 pm MT. Both game times have changed from the original schedule due to Air Force home men's basketball and football games.
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