Air Force saved its weekend for the second Saturday in a row with a 3-2 overtime victory, this one against Canisius at Buffalo, N.Y.
Sophomore left wing Will Gavin scored his second goal of the game with 8 seconds to play in 3-on-3 play to lift the Falcons (11-13-2, 9-9-2-2 AHA) over the Golden Griffins (13-11-3, 10-8-2).
The sophomore left shot, who leads Air Force with 13 goals, took a pass from Jake Marti near the blue line and moved to his right between the circles and fired against the grain on Canisius’ Jacob Barczewski (19 saves).
Alex Schilling made 39 saves for Air Force, including 19 in the third period, when the hosts outshot the Falcons 20-2 and tied the score at 2 on Simon Gravel‘s strike off a give-and-go play with Daniel DiGrande. Gravel had wheeled out of the Canisius zone with the puck, passed to DiGrande in the neutral zone and found an opening behind and AFA defenseman to get the shot off.
Gavin redirected a pass from freshman Clayton Cosentino with 8:22 to go in the first to stake the Falcons to the lead. Canisius tied at almost the exact point in the second period when forward Keaton Mastrodonato made a slick pass near the AFA goal line to David Melargni, who was steaming down the left side of the slot.
But freshman Andrew DeCarlo re-established Air Force’s lead with 46 seconds go in the second when he batted a rebound of a Nate Horn shot out of mid-air past Barczewski.
Gavin’s goals gave him six in the past five games he’s played in, and they came on the heels of a nine-game goal-less streak. His 13 goals are the most a Falcon has scored in a season since Kyle Haak had 14 and Jordan Himley had 22 during the 2016-17 season.
The game was uncharacteristic for Air Force in that it was outshot by a wide margin (41-22) and finished on the minus side in the face-off circle, winning only 28 of 62 draws. The Falcons came into the series second in AHA in both shots per game (30.5) and face-off success (nearly 51 percent).
But they had Schilling, whose save total was his second-highest amount of the season. The senior was sharp from the start, and he needed to be as Canisius carried the play for much of the game.
Notes: Freshman Jason Kleinhans made his NCAA debut, skating on right wing on the fourth line with fellow first-year player Austin Schwartz and sophomore Brian Adams. … Cosentino has points in four consecutive games and seven of the past eight. The Falcons killed off all three Golden Griffins power plays. … Gavin also scored on Friday night.
