For the second straight evening, the Robert Morris Colonials and Air Force Falcons treated fans to a physical, hotly contested battle that couldn’t be decided in 60 minutes. On this night, the Falcons emerged victorious by virtue of Scott Holm’s goal 29 seconds into overtime, which ended the Colonials’ nine-game unbeaten streak.
“I’m really proud of our hockey team; I thought we were outstanding tonight, we just didn’t get rewarded and that’s just hockey,” Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley said. “Sometimes you play terrible and win. Hats off to them (Air Force), I thought the better team did not win the hockey game. If we play the way we played this weekend, we’re going to get rewarded more often than not.”
In stark contrast to Friday night’s game, the Colonials came out with the early intensity and earned the bulk of the first period scoring chances, highlighted by Brady Ferguson’s shot that clanked off the crossbar. Ferguson’s line, which includes David Friedmann and Daniel Leavens, consistently applied pressure in the Falcons end seemingly every time they were on the ice, but they could not solve Chris Truehl, whose stellar play stymied the Colonials the entire game.
As the second frame progressed, Robert Morris tilted the ice for large stretches, but still could not get the puck to the prime scoring areas, nearly missing on several huge opportunities,
At 13:11, Cole Gunner stepped up and delivered with a well-placed shot from the top of the circles on a Falcons power play to give Air Force the early lead, with assists going to A.J. Reid and Holm.
Through 40 minutes of play, the Colonials found themselves in familiar territory, behind by one goal, but with a huge shot advantage. Unlike Friday night, the Falcons kept applying pressure in the Colonials end. It wasn’t enough to earn any breathing room on the scoreboard, but it was enough to keep the Colonials attack at bay, and through the first half of the final period, it looked as if the combination of Truehl’s performance and a Falcons defense that kept Robert Morris to the outside would possibly earn a shutout.
However, the Colonials were awarded a golden opportunity with a late power play and took advantage when Cody Wydo raced down the left wing boards around a Falcons defender who had fallen down and took the puck to the net, unleashing a backhander that beat Truehl to tie the game at 12:16.
The Colonials made a furious push for the game-winner over the final seven minutes, but Truehl left no rebounds as one post whistle scrum after another ensued.
In the end, the respective teams’ leading scorers played a part in determining the outcome, with Gunner and Wydo exchanging goals. At the :29 mark of overtime, Gunner made a brilliant, 60-foot pass from his own blue line to a wide open Holm, who beat Colonials goaltender Dalton Izyk from the left circle to put the game and the Colonials unbeaten streak to an end.
“When you go on the road and play a top 20 team, you have to play with a lead and you have to get great goaltending, which we got from Chris Truehl tonight,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said. “It was a pretty evenly played game. We were making sure that we weren’t giving anything easy. We did a good job keeping them to the perimeter and limiting their chances. It was a tight game and there wasn’t a lot of room out there. Both teams defended really well from the top of the circles in and the best players on the rink factored in the scoring tonight.”
