NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Air Force scored five goals in the first two periods and then held off Niagara for a 7-4 victory Saturday night in a wild Atlantic Hockey Association game.
Paul Weisgarber and Jason Fabian each scored two goals as Air Force improved to 4-6-1 overall and 3-3-1 in the AHA. Niagara fell to 6-4-2 and 5-2-0.
Fabian, a freshman, scored the first goal of the game at the 11:38 mark when he took the puck in his own end, carried through the neutral zone and slid it under the pad of Niagara goaltender Andrew Hare for a 1-0 lead.
With 1:48 left in the period, a Niagara player collided with Hare behind the net and knocked the goaltender down. The Falcons capitalized quickly as Jacques Lamoureux fed Brad Sellers, who fired a slap shot from the right point toward the net. Weisgarber re-directed the puck into an open net, providing the Falcons with a 2-0 lead.
Air Force scored three goals in the second period for a 5-0 lead. Fabian’s second goal of the game gave the Falcons a 3-0 lead just 2:21 into the second.
Freshman defenseman Adam McKenzie scored his first AFA goal on the power play at 4:14. The Falcons’ John Kruse slid the puck to McKenzie, who fired a slap shot from the left point through traffic for a commanding 4-0 lead.
Weisgarber scored his second goal of the game with 1:34 left in the second period. Derrick Burnett and Lamoureux led a 2-on-1 rush against Hare, who made a glove save on Lamoureux’s wrister. But Weisgarber cleaned up the rebound for his second goal of the night and his seventh of the season.
