The numbers aren’t pretty – collectively no goals for the past 14 games. And two of the three members had no goals all season.
Yet there was Air Force’s fourth line scoring the decisive goal off the stick of junior Joe Tyran in a hugely important 4-2 victory over Holy Cross on Saturday night at Cadet Arena. The win gave the Falcons third place in Atlantic Hockey and ensured a home quarterfinal series in two weeks against a team that potentially will have to play three games next weekend.
“They gave us momentum all weekend, then they get rewarded,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said. “They played big, they played strong, they played fast. The question is can these guys score? And then when we needed one most they came through.”
Tyran’s goal, with 9:29 to play gave Air Force (16-13-5, 14-10-4 AHC) a 3-2 lead with 9:29 left, and Brady Tomlak‘s roof job over Tommy Nixon with 1:35 left after a wise play from Matt Pulver provided the two-goal margin.
“Coach challenged us to come on in that third period after the loss last night, to kick some butt,” said Tyran, who tallied his fourth goal of the season. “We needed momentum going into the playoffs. It was a long time since my line had scored. We had tons of built up energy.
“We had a good flow with all four lines all weekend. That’s a tribute to how we’ve been practicing.”
Offense emerges
After a deflating overtime loss on Friday in a game the Falcons dominated territorially, they seemed to feed off the energy generated from a pregame tribute to their seven seniors Saturday. Air Force held the puck for more than 2 minutes to start, but the first time Holy Cross (10-19-5, 10-14-4 AHC) entered the hosts’ zone they scored.
Spencer Trapp‘s pass toward the slot as he was falling near the Falcons bench found Logan Ferguson all alone on the back door just 2:30 into the game. It came on the Crusaders’ first shot and their first possession of any kind in the Air Force zone.
The Falcons fashioned a wide shot edge (12-4) but were stymied repeatedly by Nixon (20 saves).
That changed in the second when one of the Air Force seniors, defenseman Matt Koch sprang Walker Sommer on a breakaway down the left wing and the forward went around a Crusaders defenseman and beat Nixon with a nifty forehand-backhand move at 5:09.
Just 2:50 later, Koch scored on shot from the middle of Main Street to give Air Force its first lead.
“The second was our worst period when it came to turnovers, but we finally buried a few chances,” Koch said. “We’ve been missing the net. … That gave us a little confidence we could beat this goalie.”
The Falcons caught the Crusaders in a rare moment of chaos.
“It was a loose puck at the top of the zone. It came back to me and I threw it over to Bails (Dan Bailey),” Koch said. “I knew they were scrambling so I started my momentum toward the net. I had a huge lane. Two Holy Cross guys started coming out at me and I shot it right between them to the lower left.”
Just 1:34 later, however, Holy Cross tied it on Jay Mackie‘s snap shot from the right dot after Mitch Collett, who won Friday’s game in OT, dug the puck out of the corner.
Finishing strong
The Falcons wrote a different ending this time, taking their coach’s intermission admonition to heart.
It began, as it often has, with senior goalie Billy Christopoulos, who was impenetrable for the final 30 minutes and had to make 22 of his 25 saves after the first period.
Tyran’s goal was a collective effort from the top down and back up.
“Ekky (Carter Eckberg) pinched down, which was a really good play. My position was to cover for him,” Tyran said. “Jaegs (Erich Jaeger) got the puck down low – we work on this play a lot in practice – he saw me coming and I was loaded up to shoot all the way.”
Added Koch, “I love watching our fourth line because they play so hard and they have so much fun together. We didn’t have to score into the empty net for once, it was nice.”
Senior night
Fittingly, the victory gave the Class of 2019 a total of 86 career victories, tying them with the Class of 2018 for the most in program history.
Not only did Koch have two points, but fellow co-captain Evan Giesler drew assists on both Koch’s and Tomlak’s goals. The most touching part of the pregame ceremony honoring the seven seniors, came when the third co-captain, Matt Serratore, was introduced.
Serratore has been out since the third game because of an upper-body injury.
“It got emotional right way with Matt when he went out with his mom,” Koch said. “I’m his roommate, and it was hard. Him not being able to play, that’s not how you want to see your buddy.
“But I’m thankful the guys pulled through. It would have been pretty crappy if we’d lost. We weren’t great at times but we found a way.”
Air Force’s three stars
- Joe Tyran. The junior scored the winner with 9:29 to go in the game, and along with linemates Erich Jaeger and Pierce Pluemer was a factor all game.
- Matt Koch. The co-captain had a hand in AFA’s first two goals, springing Walker Sommer for his and then giving the Falcons their first lead with a shot 2:50 later.
- Matt Pulver. The junior continued his strong play of late, and made a smart play to protect the puck before finding Brady Tomlak for the goal that iced the game.
Up next
The Falcons have next weekend off then will play host to an opponent to be determined next weekendin a best-of-3 Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal series at Cadet Arena.
©First Line Editorial 2017-19
