Falcons roll to 8-2 win over Michigan Tech in Desert Hockey Classic

TEMPE, Ariz. – Air Force scored three goals in the first three minutes and rolled to an 8-2 win over Michigan Tech in the first game of the Desert Hockey Classic, Friday, Jan. 2, at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Ariz.

Air Force advances to the championship game of the Desert Hockey Classic and will face either Arizona State or Alaska-Anchorage at either 3:00 pm or 7:00 pm MT.
Air Force (10-7-2 overall) scored three goals in the first three minutes of the game. Just 45 seconds into the game, Nick Sajevic scored on a rebound of Sam Stitz's shot for a 1-0 lead. Sajevic extended his point streak to seven games. Stitz then gave the Falcons a 2-0 lead on the power play as Sajevic and Will Dawson had the assists on the rush. The Falcons took a 3-0 lead at 2:42 when Mason McCormick put back a rebound of Holt Oliphant's shot. Air Force netted its second power play goal of the game at 8:30 when Nolan Cunningham set up Chris Hedden for a one-timer from the right dot. After the goal, Husky goalie Owen Bartoszkiewicz was pulled from the game in favor of Ryan Manzella. Stitz scored his second of the game at 16:06 from Dawson and Hedden for a 5-0 lead. The five goals in the period are the most since the Falcons scored five against Holy Cross, Dec. 6, 2019.

Michigan Tech (11-8-2 overall) got on the board late in the second period when Elias Jansson scored with 2:36 left in the middle period to cut the Falcon lead to 5-1.
Air Force took a 6-1 lead early in the third period when Stitz set up Will Staring on the back door for his fifth of the season at 2:47. Brendan Gibbons then set up Aidan Willis on the back door at 9:38 for the freshman's second of the season and a 7-1 lead. Freshman Hayden Nichol gave the Falcons an 8-1 lead with his first career goal on a breakaway from Cunningham at 11:07. Michigan Tech rounded out the scoring at 16:48 on Carson Latimer's goal.

"I have been telling anyone that would listen that this is a special group," head coach Frank Serratore said. "These guys love each other and love to play. It is infectious. Our guys came back from break and were ready to go and tonight it all came together. Give our guys a lot of credit. This group is evolving into a great team. There were some situations where they could have made the game interesting early, but Dominik Wasik made some really timely saves for us. This is a fun group to be around we get to play for a championship on Saturday."

The Falcons outshot the Huskies, 38-31, the third-most shots on the season for the Falcons. Air Force was 2-for-5 on the power play and killed all three of the MTU advantages. Junior Dominik Wasik made 29 saves for the Falcons. For MTU, Owen Bartoszkiewicz allowed four goals on eight shots in 8:30 of playing time. Ryan Manzella played the final 51:30 and stopped 26 of the 30 he faced.

Twelve different Falcons had points and seven different players scored goals. Stitz (2-2-4) had a career-high four points in the game.

Air Force's eight goals are the most since an 8-1 win at Army, Jan. 24, 2023. Air Force had a season-high 28 blocked shots against the Huskies.

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