Air Force Academy

This Week: Air Force (9-9-2, 3-5 CHA) returns home to host service academy rival Army (3-10-2 overall, 2-8-2 AH). The Falcons and Black Knights play Friday and Saturday, Jan. 14-15. The faceoff is at 6:05 p.m. MST Friday and 7:05 p.m. Saturday.

Radio/Internet: Both games will be broadcast in Colorado Springs on The Sports Animal AM 1300 (KKML) and also at www.AirForceSports.com. For more information on radio broadcasts, please see page two of this release.

Television: Friday's game is a nationally-televised game by College Sports Television (CSTV). CSTV is available in Colorado Springs as a premium channel on Adelphia, DirecTV and Dish Network. Saturday's game is not televised.

The Coaches: Air Force coach Frank Serratore (Bemidji State, 1982) is in his eighth season with the Falcons. Serratore has a 114-143-17 record at AFA and a 163-234-26 record in his 12th year. Army coach Brian Riley is in his first season as the head coach with the Black Knights and his 15th season overall at the academy. Riley took over for his older brother, Rob, this past summer. Rob was the head coach for 18 seasons and won 306 games. Rob took over in 1986 for his father, Jack, who coached at Army for 36 years and won 542 games.

Series Notes: Air Force leads the all-time series, 21-13-2, which began in 1976. When Frank Serratore first took over the Falcons in 1997, Air Force began dominating the series. AFA won five straight and had an eight-game unbeaten streak against the Black Knights from 1997-2000. After a 5-2 Army win in 2001, the Falcons won the next three and Serratore posted a 9-1-1 record in his first 11 games against Army. However, recently, the Black Knights have evened the series. Army has won three of the last four, including a sweep of Air Force at the Cadet Ice Arena in 2003. Led by the goaltending of Brad Roberts, Army won by identical 2-1 scores. Last season in West Point, the teams split the series. In the first game, Army led 4-0 midway through the second period. The Falcons roared back, but lost 4-3. In the second game, Peter Foster posted his first career shutout and the Falcons scored twice in the third period for a 3-0 win. The complete series results and box scores from the last two seasons are on page six of this release.

Scouting the Opponents: Army (West Point, N.Y.) is in eighth place in the nine-team Atlantic Hockey conference with six points. The Black Knights are 3-10-2 overall and 2-8-2 in the AH. Army ended a four-game losing streak, and a five-game winless skid, with a 1-0 win over UConn, Jan. 8. Army scored just one goal in the series, but split with the Huskies. UConn won the first game, 1-0. Army's other two wins came over Colgate, 3-2, and Holy Cross, 2-0. Freshman Robb Ross leads the team with four goals. Junior Seth Beamer leads Army with five points. Junior goalie Brad Roberts, who suffered a knee injury in October, returned to the ice Jan. 8 against UConn. In his first game back, he blanked the Huskies while making 29 saves. Roberts was injured in a collision with a Bentley player on Oct. 22 and missed 13 games.

Last Week: Air Force suffered a pair of close losses on the road at conference rival Bemidji State. The Falcons had leads in both games, but lost to the Beavers, 4-2 and 4-3, Jan. 7-8.