Falcons' hearts ripped along with net on final goal

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. • This is the kind of bruise that won’t easily heal.

Deep in the second overtime of Air Force’s NCAA East Regional final against Vermont on Saturday night, officials reviewed a shot by Catamounts defenseman Dan Lawson and determined it had gone through the Falcons’ net.

The goal gave Vermont a 3-2 victory at The Arena at Harbor Yard and ended Air Force’s season inches from the Frozen Four.

The review of Lawson’s shot did not start until nearly 2 minutes of game time had elapsed after he fired it, and the officials took more than 12 minutes to make their ruling. But still, the term “sudden death” never felt so appropriate.

“There’s nothing that anybody’s going to do or say that’s going to make you feel better, regardless of how you lose that game,” coach Frank Serratore said Saturday. “I don’t want to equate it to a death in the family, but for an athlete and a competitor, it’s like when you lose a loved one. There’s nothing anyone can say that’s going to make you feel any better.

“We’ll never get over this. It’ll never leave you. The sick feeling in the pit of your belly will never leave, knowing that the Air Force Academy was one overtime goal away from going to the Frozen Four.”

Yet plenty of pride should — and eventually will — accompany the pain the Falcons feel, thanks to a season in which they achieved new heights and helped Serratore cross several accomplishments off his “bucket list.”

• The Falcons went 28-11-2, setting a school record for victories.

• They won a share of the Atlantic Hockey Association regular-season title — the first in program history.

• They won the AHA Tournament for the third straight season.

• They defeated hometown rival Colorado College, which was ranked third nationally at the time.

• And, perhaps most notably, they made a dent in the NCAA Tournament. Air Force upended nine-time national champion Michigan, the East Region’s top seed, 2-0 on Friday to give the academy its first victory in an NCAA Division I tournament since 1993.

“We’ve accomplished some great things,” Serratore said.

Five Falcons will graduate, and all played key roles in turning around a program that won 11 games when they were freshmen.
Greg Flynn was the nation’s top-scoring defenseman, the AHA’s Best Defenseman and, along with defenseman Michael Mayra, a four-year contributor; forwards Brent Olson and Josh Frider scored some of the most clutch and significant goals of the past two seasons; and forward Mike Phillipich has been a two-year captain and “just a blue collar, heart-and-soul leader,” Serratore said.

“There’s no fat in that class,” Serratore said. “All five of those guys were core players, and they’ll be difficult to replace.”

Yet the Falcons will return a strong group, including sophomore Jacques Lamoureux, the nation’s leading scorer, junior goalie Andrew Volkening, the East Regional’s Most Outstanding Player, and fourth-leading scorer Matt Fairchild.

“I’d like to think we’re at a point now that we’re going to always be competitive and entertaining,” Serratore said. “And on those given years that we get a special group of upperclassmen together that we have a chance to make a run like we’ve actually made the last three years.”