Box Score

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo – The Air Force Falcons scored four goals in the third period and skated away with a 5-3 victory over the Mercyhurst University men's hockey team in front of 1,749 fans at the Cadet Ice Arena at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Friday night. The loss dropped Mercyhurst to 15-11-5 overall and 13-3-4 in the Atlantic Hockey Association standings. The Falcons improved to 16-9-4 overall and 11-6-3 in conference play.

The Lakers had been 7-2-1 lifetime at the Cadet Ice Arena prior to Friday's setback.

The loss ruined what was shaping up to be a huge night for junior goaltender Jordan Tibbett, who finished the night with a career-high 48 saves. He had stopped 34-of-35 Air Force shots over the course of the first two periods but allowed four goals on 18 shots in the third to drop to 1-7-1 on the season.

The opening forty minutes featured three goals with Mercyhurst holding a 2-1 advantage after the first two periods. However, things went south in the third as the hosts outscored the Lakers 4-1 in the final twenty minutes for the victory.

Air Force's top line of Scott Holm, Cole Gunner, and Chad Demers killed the Lakers on Friday night, accounting for 11 of the Falcons' 13 points on the night, including four of the Falcons' five goals. Holm had two goals in the third period, including the game-winner at the 6:42 mark.

Things nearly got off to a horrendous start for the Lakers as Tibbett misplayed the puck behind his own goal just 20 seconds in. A centering pass ended up on the stick of Cole Gunner in front of the net but a great tie-up by senior Nick Jones didn't allow Gunner to get a good shot off and Tibbett was able to cover up.

The Lakers made the Falcons pay for not converting early by scoring twice in the span of 40 seconds to send a silence over the crowd at the Cadet Ice Arena. Junior Tyler Shiplo wristed a shot from the right point that caromed off of Falcon defender Alex Halloran and past freshman netminder Chris Truehl for a 1-0 lead at the 4:29 mark. Shiplo's third goal of the season was assisted by sophomore Anthony Mastrodicasa and junior Daniel Bahntge.

Forty seconds later, freshman Kyle Dutra buried his own rebound past Truehl, lifting a backhander over the glove of the freshman for his fifth goal of the season at 5:09. Sophomore Kyle Cook earned the lone assist, winning the offensive zone faceoff.

The line of Dutra, Cook, and junior Nardo Nagtzaam, who combined for four goals and seven assists in last weekend's series against Bentley, combined for two goals and three assists on Friday.

After the misplay early, Tibbett settled down and was brilliant in the first period as Air Force outshot Mercyhurst 18-13 in the opening twenty minutes.

Air Force cut the Laker lead in half just 48 seconds into the second period when Chad Demers beat Tibbett for his 11th goal of the season. Scott Holm and Cole Gunner had the assists.

Later in the second, Mercyhurst was able to kill off a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 1:34 to keep the one-goal lead intact. Tibbett made some big saves during the Air Force two-man advantage and ended up stopping 16-of-17 shots in the middle stanza. The Lakers were outshot again in the second period by a 17-14 margin.

The third, however, belonged to Air Force.

Gunner got the ball rolling at 1:28 with his team-leading 13th goal of the season on assists from Holm and Adam McKenzie to knot the game at 2-2. Holm then scored at 2:49 from Gunner and Demers to give Air Force its first lead of the night at 3-2.

Head coach Rick Gotkin promptly called a timeout and Cook responded with his eighth goal of the season, one-timing a centering pass from Dutra through the five-hole of Truehl to tie the game at 3-3.

Holm answered with his second goal of the period at 6:42, which proved to be the game-winning goal. Gunner and Demers had the assists. Then, Ben Persian took advantage of an awful turnover inside of the Mercyhurst zone and walked in on Tibbett, beating the Laker goaltender through the legs for the final score of the night.

Tibbett played well despite allowing the five goals. Air Force had some tremendous creativity in its four-goal barrage in the third period – Gunner's goal was off of a perfect centering feed from Holm, Holm's first goal was a redirection over the glove hand off of a pass from Gunner, and then Holm's second goal was after a brilliant tic-tac-toe play. Persian's goal was a mini-breakaway created by a turnover inside the Mercyhurst zone.

Truehl stopped 34-of-37 Mercyhurst shots to improve to 7-2-0 on the season. The Lakers were outshot 53-37 for the contest.
Special teams were not a factor – Mercyhurst was 0-for-2 while Air Force was 0-for-3.

The two teams will wrap up the weekend series on Saturday night from the Cadet Ice Arena. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. local time – 9:05 p.m. ET.