Hockey: Canisius took first period lead for 4-2 win over Air Force

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U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFNEWS) --  Canisius scored three goals in the first period and held on for a 4-2 win over Air Force in an Atlantic Hockey Association game Friday, Feb. 16, at the Academy's Cadet Ice Arena.

Canisius jumped into eighth place in the league with the win and improved to 9-21-2 overall and 8-16-2 in the AHA. Air Force has now lost five straight, by a total of seven goals, and fell to 13-15-5 overall and 10-10-5 in the conference.

Canisius opened the scoring with two goals midway through the first period. Joey Coccimiglio scored on a two-on-one breakaway at the 6:03 mark from Joel Kitchen and Vincent Amigone. Two minutes later, Kyle Bushee gave Canisius a 2-0 lead. Pete MacDougal took a shot from the blue line on the left side and Bushee redirected it past Foster.

Air Force got on the board at the 12:05 mark as Andrew Ramsey scored his 16th of the season and his 100th career point. Ramsey skated the puck out from behind his own net and scored on a wrister from the left faceoff circle. Canisius answered with a power-play goal for a 3-1 lead at the 15:56 mark. Spencer Churchill took a pass from behind the net and scored his third of the season.

The Falcons cut the lead to 3-2 on Jeff Hajner's power-play goal at the 10:01 mark. Greg Flynn took a shot from the right point that was saved and Ramsey slid the rebound to a wide open Hajner at the left post who scored his 10th of the season. The AFA penalty kill came up large in the period, killing 73 seconds of a 5-on-3 and the remaining 5-on-4 power play with four minutes left in the period.

Air Force dominated the first half of the third period, out-shooting Canisius, 11-3, at one point.

However, with 2:31 left in the third period, Billy Devoney was called for slashing and Canisius capitalized on the power play. Chris Forsman took a shot from the point that was saved by Foster, but Greg Brown put back the rebound for his third of the season. AFA pulled Foster for the final 2:05, but had just two shots on goal with the extra skater on the ice.

AFA out-shot Canisius, 42-21, in the game. Foster made 17 saves for Air Force. Canisius freshman Andrew Loewen made 40 saves, including all 14 in the third period. AFA was 1-for-5 on the power play while Canisius was 2-for-5.

"We were horrible in the first period tonight," head coach Frank Serratore said. "I knew they would come at us hard in the first period and we needed to with-stand that. We failed to do it. Their energy was better than ours in the first period."

The same two teams conclude the series Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Cadet Ice Arena at 7:05 p.m. MST. The game will be the final home appearance, barring a potential playoff game, for eight Falcon seniors: Billy Devoney, Brian Gineo, Peter Foster, Jay Medenwaldt, Brian Reese, Andrew Ramsey, Ben Worker and Theo Zacour.

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