Air Force hockey notes: Right call on Burnett

About 10 minutes before Air Force's East Regional first-round game against Michigan on Saturday, coach Frank Serratore pulled sophomore forward Derrick Burnett out of the locker room and told him he wouldn't be playing.

Burnett had injured his groin in practice Wednesday, didn't skate Thursday and didn't look at full strength in the Falcons' warmup Friday.

"He said, ‘Coach, you can't do that to me,' " Serratore said.

Burnett scored in last year's NCAA Tournament and has been, according to Serratore, one of his team's "core guys." So he told assistants Mike Corbett and Andy Berg, "I owe it to this kid." And Greg Burgdoerfer was scratched instead.

Burnett didn't let Serratore down. Late in the first period, with Air Force on the power play, Burnett took a pass from Jeff Hajner at about the right circle and fired a wrist shot into the left side of the goal that was the game-winner in the Falcons' 2-0 victory.

"He gets that puck on his stick and zips it home, and Andy Berg nudges me on the bench, he goes, ‘Good decision, coach,'" Serratore said.

"It was kind of a lift off my shoulders," Burnett said. "I just wanted to go out, especially that first period, and show him I could play."

Pretty goal

Air Force's second goal was scored by Jacques Lamoureux but was set up with a pretty play by Matt Fairchild.

Fairchild took a pass from Greg Flynn, made a move to lose a Michigan defender and then slid a pass across the ice to Lamoureux, who scored his 33rd goal of the season.

Historic victory

Air Force's victory was the first by an academy team in an NCAA Division I Tournament since the men's soccer team won a pair of games in the 1993 tourney.

Quality, not quantity

Air Force's 13 shots were the fourth fewest ever by a team in an NCAA Tournament game. The Falcons are the first team to win an NCAA Tournament game taking less than 15 shots.