Air Force hockey team blanks American International, 2-0

  • Published
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AFPN) --  Peter Foster recorded his fifth shutout of the season to lead the Air Force Academy Falcons to a 2-0 win over American International College in a nonconference college hockey game here Dec. 11.

The Falcons swept the two-game series and improved to 9-5-2 overall. AIC fell to 1-9-1. Air Force has now won seven of its last eight games. The series sweep set a new school record for road sweeps in a season. The Falcons are now 7-1-2 on the road this season. The seven road wins ties as the second most in school history.

Foster’s five shutout games this year, the most in the nation, ties the academy record set by Marc Kielkucki in 1998 and 1999. He now has six for his career.

“We played a pretty complete game,” said Air Force head coach Frank Serratore. “The only frustration we had was that we didn’t put the puck in the net more. This was a sound 2-0 beating. The outcome was never in doubt, but AIC stayed close enough that we could not get comfortable.”

Air Force opened the scoring at 14:51 of the first period. Andrew Ramsey won the faceoff and passed to Brandon Merkosky, who made the shot. Air Force out-shot AIC, 17-2, in the first period. Merkosky’s goal was the eventual game-winner, and his first career game-winning goal.

In the second period, Brian Gineo’s fifth goal of the season gave the Falcons a two-goal lead at the 8:11 mark. On the power play, the Falcons created a flurry in front of the net, and Gineo scored from Matt Charbonneau and Eric Ehn.

The Falcons out-shot AIC, 15-6, in the third period but neither team scored. AIC pulled its goaltender with 36 seconds remaining and had just one shot on net.

Air Force out-shot AIC in two of the three periods and held a 40-17 advantage in the game. The Falcons were 1-for-8 on the power play while AIC was 0-for-6. Foster made 17 saves for the Falcons. Novello made 38 for AIC, including 15 in the third period.

The Falcons are now idle until they compete at the Denver Cup Jan 1.