When Air Force is on its game, pressure is a key component, and that was the case for two periods Friday night in the home opener of the Falcons’  50th season of NCAA hockey.

The third period was another story, and the Falcons survived an Arizona State onslaught to escape with a 4-3 non-conference victory.

An agitated Frank Serratore said the turnovers and downshifted play by his team’s veterans was the most disappointing aspect of the near meltdown.

“Just to have it fall apart from self-inflicted wounds from players who should know better,” the coach said.

The Falcons carried a 4-1 lead into the third, getting goals from four different players, capped by captain Dylan Abood‘s goal through a tag-team screen of Sun Devils goalie Joey Daccord (38 saves) by Erich Jaeger and Walker Sommer.

Things began to unravel in earnest midway through the third period, when the teams began trading penalties. The Sun Devils trimmed the margin to two on Jacob Wilson‘s power-play strike from inside the right circle at 9:11. Five minutes later, Tyler Busch made it one-goal game.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t put together a full 60 minutes,” Abood said. “We played solid for 40 and for whatever reason the third period we just took our foot off the gas a little bit.

“It’s definitely a lesson we’ll take moving forward. When the body starts getting a little bit tired you have to make sure the mind stays sharp and you have to make decisions fast and keep moving fast. We’ll learn from this and be better moving forward.”

Added fellow senior Ben Kucera, who got the Falcons on the board with a power-play tally 2:18 in and nearly added a second goal little more than 2 minutes later, “To have it come that close after we get off to a good lead, yeah, we don’t like that at all. We’ve got to stick to our game.

“A lot of our veteran guys, seniors and juniors, were the ones making those plays. … We expect more.”

Falcons goalie Billy Christopoulos (30 saves) made a huge save on a breakaway with 6:02 left and kept making them the rest of the way. Let there be no more questions about whether the junior will take the reins.

“Bill has been fantastic. He’s been our best player by far, no question,” Abood said. “He’s made some huge saves down the stretch. We owe a lot of our success to him. Awesome to see him step up and take charge and have the confidence.”

The Falcons (2-0-1) had their template down for two periods – initiate play by forechecking relentlessly. Kucera’s goal came as a result of a pressure-induced penalty.

Junior center Kyle Haak, one of the forecheck ringleaders and shots on goal leader with seven, made it 2-0 when he followed his own shot with a pipe-bar down shot with 4:32 to go in the first.

“That was one of our focuses this week, crash the net and get those rebound opportunities,” said forward Evan Giesler, who had two assists and wasn’t shy about introducing himself to Sun Devils in their own zone. “Obviously in the first and second periods it showed up in terms of points, we scored four goals.”

ASU kept it close when Anthony Croston got behind the Falcons’ defense and tucked the puck around Christopoulos.

The second period featured more of the same. Senior assistant captain Erik Baskin finished off a beautiful Tic Tac Tac Toe play with Giesler and Tyler Ledford midway through the second period. Ledford’s entry pass into the offensive zone found Giesler at the left circle, the wing played catch with Ledford before finding Baskin on the right doorstep.

“The first two periods we played within our systems, doing what we’re supposed to do. We played with jump and made the right plays,” Giesler said. “The third period we fell off a little there. Give some credit where credit’s due. They made some good plays, too. We have to be better tomorrow, we all know that.”

Abood made it 4-1 when his shot from the right point beat Daccord, who was screened by Erich Jaeger and Walker Sommer.

Injury updates

An MRI exam on junior center Evan Feno‘s knee confirmed he has a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season, a loss the Falcons’ coaching staff called devastating.  … Junior wing Matt Serratore remains in concussion protocol and won’t play this weekend. … Freshman wing Marshall Bowery also is not expected to play for a while given the nature of his upper-body injury.

AFA’s three stars

1. Evan Giesler. Two assists and constant pressure on the forecheck
2. Dylan Abood. The captain gets what proves to be the game-winning goal and makes play after play in his zone.
3. Billy Christopoulos / Kyle Haak. The goalie was stellar when the chips were down, while Haak played with an edge, scored a goal and generated seven shots.

Next up

The Falcons and Sun Devils face off again Saturday at 7:05 p.m. The Falcons alumni game is at 2 p.m.

The last word

“The upperclassmen came to me and said we want to win big, well the learning curve better accelerate,” Frank Serratore said. “We have to play January hockey in October.

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