Air Force beat Mercyhurst, 5-4, takes four of six points in series

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – Air Force scored three goals in the third period and then held off Mercyhurst for a 5-4 win in an Atlantic Hockey America game Saturday, Feb. 14, at the Cadet Ice Arena. With the win, Air Force won the series with Mercyhurst, taking four of the six league points.

Mercyhurst (4-23-3, 4-15-3 AHA) scored first for the second straight night. The Lakers won a faceoff in the offensive zone and Riley Fitzgerald scored his second of the season at 16:55 from Caleb Price and Dominik Bartecko. Air Force answered 19 seconds later after forcing a turnover in the Lakers end. Chris Hedden intercepted a pass and his shot was saved. Senior captain Mason McCormick cleaned up the rebound for his sixth of the season at 17:16 to tie the score at 1-1.

Air Force (15-12-3, 11-9-2 AHA) took its first lead of the game midway through the second period on the rush. Nolan Cunningham sprung Charles Panchisin for a 2-on-1 with Will Dawson. Panchisin weaved his way through three Lakers for his second of the season at 12:37. Late in the period, the Lakers went on the power play and tied the game. Lukas Klemm's point shot was saved, but Alexander Dimitriadis put back the rebound with 1:47 left in the second.

Just 59 seconds into the third period, the Lakers took a 3-2 lead on the power play. Jacob Lablac skated below the goal line and found Sean James in front for the Lakers' second power-play goal of the game. Just over two minutes later, the Falcons tied the game when senior captain Holt Oliphant scored his seventh of the season at 17:00. Ren Morque drove the net and his shot was saved, but Oliphant put back the rebound as Michael Kadlecik also assisted.

The Falcons then scored two goals in a span of 1:40 midway through the third period to build a 5-3 lead. After Nick Sajevic drew a penalty, the Falcons capitalized. Hedden threaded a pass through the slot to Sam Stitz in the far circle. Stitz netted his 11^th of the season, tied for the team lead, as Sajevic also assisted at 9:03. The all-freshman line then gave the Falcons a 5-3 lead at 10:42. Cole Christian and Panchisin set up Hayden Nichol for a rocket from the right circle for his second of the season.

With three minutes remaining, the Lakers pulled the goalie and Bartecko scored with 1:53 left in the extra attacker situation. The Laker again pulled the goalie, down a goal, with 1:30 remaining, but were not able to tie the game.

Air Force outshot Mercyhurst, 36-24, in the game, The Lakers were 2-for-3 on the power play while Air Force was 1-for-2. Sal Evola made 31 saves for the Lakers and Dominik Wasik had 20 for the Falcons.

"We knew this game was going to be decided in the third period and it was," head coach Frank Serratore said. "We did play a lot better than last night. We had more bodies around the net tonight. Their goalie was very good this whole weekend. I liked our game at even strength. We only gave up one even-strength goal tonight. This was a valuable win going into the West Point series next weekend. The three points tonight, and the four on the weekend, were massive."

Air Force hosts Army for a two-game league series, Friday-Saturday, Feb. 20-21, at the Cadet Ice Arena. Game two of the series on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 5:05 pm MT will be senior night.

--30--

Footer

The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the u.s air force of non-u.s. government sites or the information, products, or services contained therein. Although the u.s. air force may or may not use these sites as additional distribution channels for department of defense information, it does not exercise editorial control over all of the information that you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this website.