Sometimes in life, and in hockey, you can do everything right and still lose.
Air Force, coming off a last-place finish last season, had an improved start to 2023-24, but ran into a scoring slump to close out the first semester on a 1-5-1 stretch that saw the Falcons score a total of eight goals.
Recently, Frank Serratore’s team faced some tough competition in losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota Duluth in the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off in Milwaukee, dropping those games 3-0 and 4-1.
“I told our guys after Wisconsin and Duluth – we made them play their best hockey to beat us”, said Serratore. “Those games were tight.”
Serratore said that throughout the scoring slump, his team was doing the right things, but the pucks just weren’t going in.
“We were getting chances, ” he said. “Our goaltending was good, our special teams were good. I liked the way we were playing and knew that eventually, pucks were going to start going in.”
And boy, did they last weekend at Bentley.
Air Force scored a total of 10 goals in 3-1 and 7-3 wins, moving up to sixth in the Atlantic Hockey standings, just a point out of fourth.
The 10 goals in those two games were more than the Falcons had combined for in their previous eight contests.
It was also the first six-point sweep for the Falcons in almost two years, the last coming against Mercyhurst on Jan. 21-22. 2022.
“We had more goals in the first 13 minutes on Friday than we did in the previous three games,” said Serratore. “I liked how we stayed cool throughout this. The last thing to do when you’re not scoring is press to try to score more, then make mistakes defensively.”
Junior goaltender Guy Blessing has started every game so far in net for the Falcons and has been solid, especially over Air Force’s last eight games (2.16 GAA, .917 save percentage).
“(Before last weekend) He had a stretch where his save percentage was over 93 percent,” said Serratore. “And we went 1-3 in those games.”
On Saturday, senior forward Will Gavin tallied three power-play goals, tying an Atlantic Hockey record.
Gavin leads the league and is second in the nation with nine power-play goals. His 13 goals this season are second in the AHA and 19th nationally.
It’s the most by a Falcon in a single season since he had 16 in 2021-22. And Air Force still has a minimum of 15 games left.
“He’s got the hardest shot of any player that I ever coached,” said Serratore.
Classmate Luke Rowe picked up four assists last weekend and now leads the league with 18 helpers. The Falcons got a boost when the NCAA recently approved a waiver for Rowe, who graduated early, to complete the regular season.
“We were pretty sure that he would get the extra 60 days that are usually afforded to players to keep playing beyond graduation,” said Serratore. “You see that a lot in spring sports like baseball where the NCAAs extend into June. He needed three more games to complete the regular season and that got approved.”
So Rowe will be in the lineup this weekend when American International visits for a pair of games. The Yellow Jackets are currently in third place, five points ahead of Air Force.
Serratore says his preparations will be the same, looking to continue to bring his suddenly high-flying offense.
“Last weekend, we continued to do the things we need to do to be successful,” said Serratore. “I wasn’t happy with some of the penalties but overall, we were getting traffic in front, and getting pucks on net. The difference was that for a change, everything was going in.
“But that’s hockey.”
