The most successful season in Air Force hockey history ended like an Avalanche on Saturday.
Just when it appeared to be a beautiful day for the Falcons, who were making their NCAA Tournament debut at the Pepsi Center, two prospects of the local NHL team crushed the country’s Cinderella story from Colorado.
Avs draftees Ryan Stoa and Mike Carman scored the opening and closing goals of a three-goal, third-period rally to give mighty Minnesota a 4-3 victory before a mostly Front Range crowd of 11,161.
Air Force, the West Regional’s No. 4 seed, ends 19-16-5 but is no longer an afterthought when it comes to hockey. The Falcons led 1-0 after the first period, 2-1 after the second and 3-1 early in the third against the No. 1-seeded and top-ranked Gophers (31-9-3).
Minnesota’s only lead was the final 4:34 of a game that hardly supported the fact that the Gophers have 14 NHL draft picks and the Falcons none.
Air Force arguably was the better team for the first 50 minutes, and undoubtedly on the scoreboard.
It was the last 10 minutes that made Falcons coach Frank Serratore visibly shaken. Thirty minutes after the stunning loss, he said he felt his team was going to win its seventh straight game and become the second straight Atlantic Hockey Association champion to shock the Gophers in the first round.
“I’m proud of our team,” said Serratore, who was fired at the University of Denver in 1994 and served on the NCAA selection committee the past five years, two of which ended in DU national titles. “Our motto is we want to be the most difficult team in the country to play against, and I think we were tonight.
“Minnesota has tremendous speed and skill and we were determined not to let them beat us with their speed and skill. If they were going to beat us they were going to have to get their nose dirty. And for 50 minutes they tried to beat us with speed and skill, and it wasn’t happening for them.”
Minnesota’s rally was pure blue collar and took less than four minutes. Stoa’s power-play stuff-in beside the net made it 3-2 with 8:10 to play, and Jim O’Brien’s above-the-crease redirect off an Erik Johnson blast tied it with 5:55 to go.
Carmen’s midair tip-in winner was as unlikely as it was beautiful. He took an Alex Goligoski blast that caromed off the glass behind freshman goaltender Andrew Volkening and swatted it in from the doorstep with 4:43 to play.
“It’s pretty cool,” Carman said of scoring such a big goal in a building he might someday call home. “I have a relationship with Denver, but I’m just glad I helped our team win today.”
Jeff Hajner, Andrew Ramsey and Brett Nylander scored for Air Force. Ramsey capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play and Nylander’s wraparound made it 3-1 with 14:28 to play.
“Not a lot of people gave us credit, but we knew we had a team that could compete with Minnesota,” Air Force captain Billy Devoney said. “To play such a good game and (lose) is a tough way to go out. But it’s nice to get a crack at Minnesota.”
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
