In last weekend’s Ice Breaker Tournament in Grand Forks, N.D., Air Force appeared to be in its NCAA Tournament form.
The Falcons, who have a history of playing No. 1 seeds extraordinarily well, blew third-period leads and absorbed difficult one-goal losses to host North Dakota and Michigan State. But again, they proved a service academy with only American players can play elite-level NCAA hockey.
“I’m (upset). My guys are (upset). We were in position to beat both those teams,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said Monday.
The Falcons led North Dakota 3-2 before the Fighting Sioux rallied for two goals and a 4-3 win in the final seven minutes of the third period. Air Force lost to Michigan State 3-2 in overtime after leading 2-1 late in regulation.
Combined, Air Force outshot those teams 53-49, limiting the Sioux to 26 shots and the Spartans to 23.
“We had (North Dakota) right where we wanted them, and the next night against Michigan State we played very well on short rest,” Serratore said. “They were playing their second straight noon game, while we had the first night game.”
Serratore has guided Air Force to NCAA Tournament appearances in four of the past five years. The Falcons are 1-4 in those games, but each loss was by one goal, including three in overtime.
Air Force was eliminated by No. 1 seed Yale in March 2-1 in OT.
“We can be a good team if we want to be a good team,” Serratore said. “We’re way ahead of where we were last year. . . . We have good Air Force depth, and we’re tough to play against. And neither North Dakota nor Michigan State was faster than us.”
Beantown. The third-ranked University of Denver opens its season Friday at Boston College, which replaced Miami (Ohio) as the unanimous No. 1 in the media polls Monday.
The Eagles captured the Ice Breaker Tournament by beating Michigan State 5-2 and North Dakota 6-2.
DU goes from Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Friday to downtown Boston on Saturday to face Boston University.
Combined, the Eagles and Terriers have outscored their opponents 16-4, including BU’s 5-0 pounding of Hockey East rival New Hampshire last Saturday.
Footnote. Air Force goalie Jason Torf, who suffered a groin injury in the third period of the Michigan State game, is out indefinitely.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to an editing error, the amount by which Boston College and Boston University combined to outscore their opponents was incorrectly reported. It was 16-4.
