Last Saturday, the morning after Air Force fell to 0-4 with a shocking home-opening loss to downtrodden American International, Falcons coach Frank Serratore took the Herb Brooks approach of teaching.
“I lit into these guys like you couldn’t believe,” the emotional coach said Monday, two days after the Falcons crushed American International 12-0 in the finale of the two-game series. “I had had it with these guys. We needed to become a team.”
Serratore was furious at his seven seniors for failing to lead and earn respect from seven freshmen.
“There was a generation gap, and I blame the older guys for not closing it,” he said.
He was particularly critical of senior center and co-captain Jacques Lamoureux and senior linemate and assistant captain Derrick Burnett. Lamoureux was an All-American and Hobey Baker Award finalist as a sophomore but went into Saturday without a goal.
“I told them we had too many coaches and not enough players. We need one coach and one villain, and that’s me. That’s my job,” Serratore said. “I want guys that love each other and want to go to war together. There’s nothing worse than having an ‘ununified’ room. That was torturing me. I want a team that faces the Denver Pioneers and fights their tails off for each other. We’re Air Force, and that’s why I love this place. We have to have the chemistry-brotherhood thing on our side, because without that we don’t have a chance.”
Lamoureux, 24, had three goals Saturday, giving him 58 in only three seasons with the Falcons. Serratore said Lamoureux spearheaded change by playing hard and keeping his comments positive.
“We went out, and you could almost feel like the team became unified,” Serratore said. “When (stuff) isn’t good, you feel nothing. But we had a lot of feeling on the bench on Saturday.
“I don’t know how good we are, but we’re better than our record and we have way better depth than last year, not even comparable. I’m excited to come to the rink this year because we have more good players at each position, and hopefully now we don’t have such a separation between the seniors and freshmen.”
Footnotes.
With Notre Dame’s upset of No. 1-ranked Boston College and Maine’s sweep of No. 2 North Dakota last weekend, Miami (Ohio) leapfrogged both for this week’s top spot in the polls. No. 11 Denver remains the state’s only ranked team in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll. . . . Incoming DU freshmen Scott Mayfield and Garrett Allen made the 2010 U.S. Junior Select Team that will compete in the Nov. 8-14 World Junior A Challenge in Penticton, British Columbia. Mayfield is a 6-foot-4 defenseman for Youngstown of the United States Hockey League. Allen is a forward for Fargo of the USHL.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
Front Range rankings
1. Denver (2-2-2, 1-0-1 WCHA).
Last week: Beat and tied Wisconsin, 4-2 and 2-2. This week: Visits North Dakota (3-2-1, 2-0 WCHA) Friday-Saturday. Comment: Pioneers outplayed Badgers throughout series and proved they have the potential to be a very good team.
2. Colorado College (3-2-1, 1-1 WCHA).
Last week: Split at Minnesota State, 5-4 loss and 1-0 victory. This week: Hosts Minnesota (3-3, 1-3) Friday-Saturday. Comment: After two weekends on the road, Tigers return home to face Gophers, who have yet to play outside Minneapolis.
3. Air Force (1-4, 1-2 AHA).
Last week: Split with American International, 5-3 loss and 12-0 victory. This week: Idle. Next game Nov. 5 at Mercyhurst (0-3-1, 0-1 AHA). Comment: It took them five games to figure it out, but Falcons righted the ship heading into their bye week.
Mike Chambers, The Denver Post
