Jan. 5, 2007

Stats

Erie, Pa. - Air Force Junior forward Eric Ehn, the nation's leading point-getter, scored twice in the last 90 seconds of the game as Air Force rallied to defeat Mercyhurst 5-3 Friday night at the Ice Center. The meeting was the first-ever between the teams. The Falcons improved to 10-8-3 overall and to 7-3-3 in Atlantic Hockey. The Lakers dropped to 4-13-4 and 4-9-2 respectively.

The Lakers owned leads of 1-0, 2-1 after a period, and 3-2 after forty minutes, but couldn't hang on.

Sophomore winger Chris Trafford scored his 6th goal of the season, an unassisted breakaway, just 48 seconds into the contest to give Mercyhurst a quick start. The Falcons got even about four minutes later on a lamplighter by freshman forward Jeff Hajner. Senior captain Kyle Gourgon parked his seventh of the season late in the period, from linemates Ryan Toomey and Cody Collins, for a 2-1 advantage. Air Force outshot Mercyhurst 10-7 in the opening twenty minutes.

The Falcons tied the game on the first of two power play goals at 8:27 of the middle frame when junior forward Josh Schaffer beat Mercyhurst senior netminder Jordan Wakefield. The Lakers regained the one-goal margin for the final time when freshman Collins burnt Falcons' senior Peter Foster at 14:04. Collins had help from sophomore Brett Robinson. Air Force owned a 15-7 shot advantage in the second.

Senior winger Andrew Ramsey got Air Force even again midway in the third with an unassisted marker. That set the stage for Ehn, who had 16 goals and 36 points entering the game. Ehn slid one behind Wakefield on the short side at 18:36 and then finished the scoring with a power play empty net score with only 14 seconds remaining. The Falcons outshot Mercyhurst 16-8 in the final period and 41-22 for sixty minutes.

Air Force finished 2 of 4 with the man advantage while the Lakers were 0 for 3. Ironically, the Falcons took back-to-back penalties late in the third but, despite a two-man advantage for 68 seconds, the Lakers couldn't break a 3-3 stalemate.

The two teams will conclude the weekend series Saturday night at 7.