Air Force picks up 4 key points in hockey

The Air Force hockey team won’t look back on this league-opening weekend with the regret it has had the past two years.

The Falcons relied on their depth and energy to eke out a 4-2 win over visiting Robert Morris at Cadet Ice Arena and pick up an important four points at home to start Atlantic Hockey Association play after Friday’s overtime win against Niagara.

Air Force (2-2, 2-0 AHA) wasn’t so fortunate in years past, going 0-4 on the opening weekend the past two seasons.

“Points this early in the season are huge,” said senior co-captain Scott Mathis. “In February, we’ve always looked back and said we wished we’d had those two or three points from October.”

What made the four points all the more precious is that the Falcons did it while missing three key players because of injury: forwards Casey Kleisinger (shoulder) and Mitch Torrel (concussion) and goalie Jason Torf (groin). Replacing them were freshmen wings Brad McBride and Scott Holm and senior goalie Stephen Caple.

“We put three inexperienced guys in there and they got the job done,” coach Frank Serratore said. “We’ve never been this deep.”

Air Force’s hustle helped it win most of the one-on-one battles and resulted in the eventual game-winner when John Kruse forced a turnover behind the net of the Colonials (1-2, 0-1). Kruse collected the puck and fired a pass in front for a one-timer by Jason Fabian that made the score 3-1 early in the second.

“We definitely had the legs tonight,” Fabian said.

Caple didn’t make any huge saves, but played well enough to win two games this weekend with a save percentage of 90.7 percent.

“Steve did his job,” Serratore said. “We played well in front of him and he didn’t lose the games for us. It’s a step in the right direction.”

Like getting four league points in mid-October.

“Getting four points when you consider the situation we were in was huge,” Serratore said.