Air Force Academy

Jan. 26, 2010

Complete Release in PDF Format

This Week Air Force (12-9-5, 12-5-5 AHA) travels to West Point, N.Y., for a two-game series with Army (8-12-4, 7-8-3 AHA), Friday-Saturday, Jan. 29-30, at 7:05 p.m. EST each night at Tate Rink. Air Force is tied for first place in the AHA with 29 points. Army is in seventh place with 17 points.

Radio/Internet Both games will be broadcast in Colorado Springs on The Sports Animal AM 1300 and on the internet at GoAirForceFalcons.com. Pregame show is at 4:35 p.m. MST with faceoff at 5:05 p.m. MST each day. Both games will be video streamed with audio by the B2 Network on a subscription basis. For more information, please go to AtlanticHockeyOnline.com.

Last Week Air Force and Holy Cross split a pair of games at Cadet Ice Arena. Holy Cross won the first game, 6-4. AFA won game two, 4-3 in overtime. Army and UConn split the series in West Point. Army won the first game 5-0 and lost the second, 2-1.

The Coaches Air Force coach Frank Serratore (Bemidji State, 1982) is in his 13th season as the Falcons' head coach. He has led the Falcons to three straight conference championships and NCAA Tournament berths. Winningest coach in the history of Air Force hockey with a record of 210-219-37 (13th year at AFA) and a career mark of 259-311-46 (17th year). Army coach Brian Riley (Brown, 1983) has a 76-96-29 school and overall record in his sixth season.

Penalty Kill No. 2 in the Nation The penalty kill is No. 2 in the nation at 89.2 percent, killing 107 of 120 this season. AFA killed five of seven Holy Cross power plays last week. Seventeen times (in 26 games) Air Force has held its opponents without a power play goal. Just four times have the Falcons allowed more than one PPG.

Scouting the Army Black Knights Army got off to a slow start with an 0-4-2 record in the first six games. After a four-game winning streak in November-December, the Black Knights are 1-4-2 in the last seven games, four of which were on the road. One of the losses was a 2-1 overtime defeat to 13th-ranked Union. Army is 6-2-1 at home this season with the only losses to Union and last week to UConn. Junior Cody Omilusik leads the team with 14 goals and 25 points. The team has enjoyed balanced scoring with six players with 15 or more points this season Junior Jay Clark is the team's top goaltender with a .912 saves percentage and a 2.82 goals-against average to rank fourth and fifth in the league, respectively, in both categories.

Series with Army AFA and Army have played 47 times entering this weekend and the Falcons hold a 27-18-2 lead in the series. The teams first met in 1976 in West Point and Army won the first game, 3-0. Air Force earned its first ever win over Army the next night, 9-2. As Atlantic Hockey rivals since the 2006-07 season, the teams have played seven times with Air Force holding a 4-3 advantage. The difference in the series was Air Force's 6-1 win in the 2007 AHA Championship Game. The teams split a series at the Academy in 2007. Army swept the series in West Point in 2008 while Air Force swept the series in Colorado in 2009. Army has won four straight and five of the last six at West Point. Prior to the last six games, Air Force had won six straight at West Point under Frank Serratore from 1998-01 Just three of the 47 games have gone into overtime (ties in 1990 and 1997 and the Army win in 2005). Fourteen games have been decided by one goal and seven by two goals. In games when there were four or more combined goals, AFA is 24-9-2. In games when less than four combined goals are scored, Air Force is 3-9.

First Goal is the Big Goal Air Force is 10-2-3 when it scores the first goal of the game. AFA is 2-7-2 when allowing the first goal. During the Falcons' four-game unbeaten streak, AFA scored first in all four games. Air Force bucked the trend last weekend vs. Holy Cross. AFA scored first in the first game and lost. Then in the second game, Air Force gave up the first goal and won in overtime. The games in which Air Force scored first and lost was a 4-1 loss at Sacred Heart, Jan. 2 and a 6-4 loss at home to Holy Cross, Jan. 22.

A Flair for the Dramatic Air Force is a perfect 5-0 in games decided by one goal. The Falcons have had a knack for scoring goals late in games. Air Force has scored the game-winning or game-tying goal in the final three minutes of the third period or overtime five times this year. AFA scored game-winning goals against RIT (Kirby) with 1:45 left in the third and one second left in overtime (Fairchild); AFA scored the game-winner vs. UConn with 2:46 left in third (Kirby) and game-tying goal with 1:40 left in third Saturday (Lamoureux). AFA beat Holy Cross, 4-3, in overtime on Jan. 23 when Kirby scored with 0.6 seconds left in overtime.