Even though it was an exhibition game, Air Force Academy coach Frank Serratore took one big positive from his Falcons’ 3-1 win over the University of Alberta Golden Bears Sunday night; his team sealed the victory with a late power-play goal.
“One of the things I was real pleased with was how many times last year were we in that situation? 1-1 late and our power play had an opportunity to win the game for us and didn’t get it done,” said Serratore. “I was real pleased that the special teams came through at the end and put the game away for us, ’cause that’s something that didn’t happen for us last year at home very often.”
With Alberta forward Eric Hunter serving a five-minute penalty for elbowing Falcons’ freshman transfer Jacques Lamoureux, Jeff Hajner blasted a shot from the top of the left circle past Golden Bears’ goaltender Real Cyr with 24 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
About two minutes earlier, Air Force freshman Scott Mathis broke the 1-1 tie when his power play shot from the point deflected off a Golden Bears’ skate past Cyr.
After a quiet first period, the Falcons broke open the scoring just 11 seconds into the second frame. Josh Frider took advantage of a puck misplaced by Cyr and dished it to Brett Olson, who scored on a virtually open net.
About four and a half minutes later, as a penalty to the Falcons expired, Chad Kilgour knotted the game at one with a diving tip rebound shot past Air Force netminder Andrew Volkening.
“I told the guys, this is going to be a typical game here,” said Serratore. “They would be a typical Atlantic Hockey opponent where we out-play them and they’ve got a terrific goalie.”
The Falcons next travel to Sacred Heart for a two-game series while Alberta faces off against Colorado College on Monday for their third game in as many days.
