Air Force falls to No. 2 Denver, 4-0

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – Freshman goalie Freddie Halyk made 24 saves to lead second-ranked Denver to a 4-0 win over Air Force, Saturday, Oct. 28, at Magness Arena in Denver, Colo.

Denver (4-1-1 overall) took the early lead when Boston Buckberger's shot was headed wide of the net and Massimo Rizzo redirected it into the net for a 1-0 lead at 11:00 of the first period.
Midway through the second period, Parker Brown and Luke Rowe drew a pair of penalties and the Falcons had 1:23 of a 5-on-3. The Falcons had eight shot attempts in those 83 seconds, with four shots on goal, three blocked by defensemen and one wide of the net, but could not light the lamp.

Late in the second period, a bad bounce went against the Falcons as Pioneer defenseman Cale Ashcroft took a shot from below the goal line that caromed off the back of goalie Guy Blessing and into the net at 18:31 of the second.

The Pioneers clung to the two-goal lead until late in the third period. Rizzo took a puck coast-to-coast, made a move around Blessing and scored while diving across the crease with 5:44 left. The Falcons pulled the goalie with 2:57 remaining, but the Pioneer Carter King scored into the empty net at 18:00.

Denver outshot Air Force, 27-24. Each team was 0-for-5 on the power play. Guy Blessing made 23 saves for the Falcons.

"We played a really good road game tonight," head coach Frank Serratore said. "Last night, we beat ourselves against CC. Tonight, we forced the Pioneers to beat us. They have a terrific team and they had great goaltending. We had to score on that 5 on 3 and we didn't. We played as good a road game as we can play except we didn't score. Until they find another way to decide games, we have to find a way to score. They have fantastic speed, but we protected the good ice. We generated a lot of chances and our penalty kill did a fantastic job. If we can replicate this performance, we will win a lot of road games."

Air Force (3-5-0 overall) opens Atlantic Hockey play at Niagara, Nov. 3-4, in Niagara, N.Y.

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Team Stats

Luke Rowe

Austin Schwartz

Chris Hedden

Will Gavin

Players Mentioned

Guy Blessing

Parker Brown

Luke Rowe

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