Falcons earn respect in first loss

DENVER • History trumped perfection at Magness Arena on Saturday but Air Force earned respect even in defeat.

Denver continued its dominance of previously unbeaten Air Force with a 4-1 victory before a crowd of 6,032.

“I can’t say we’ve played a better team all year,” said DU coach George Gwozdecky. “That game could’ve gone either way. If we play a seven-game series, it goes seven games.”

Rhett Rakhshani gave DU a 1-0 lead in a tight, tense game at 14:50 of the second period. Scott Mathis tied it for Air Force at 2:31 of the third period but the Pioneers answered in just 30 seconds as Kyle Ostrow found the net.

“That squashed the momentum we got,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said. “Their third goal was demoralizing.”

That came from Rakhshani at 6:22 of the final period. The Pioneers added an empty-net goal at 18:12.

No. 10 DU (9-5-1), a seven-time national champion, improved to 28-3 against Air Force. The Falcons snapped a 19-game losing streak against the Pioneers last year but have never beaten DU in consecutive seasons.

Air Force did snap a 25-game losing streak against No. 3 Colorado College on Friday. The Falcons have never beaten CC and DU in the same season.

“If somebody said last week that we’d split these games, I’d have taken that,” Falcons junior goalie Andrew Volkening said. “But I’m disappointed now. We wanted to make a huge statement.”

No. 11 Air Force (13-1-0) was the nation’s last unbeaten team.

“They should be a top 10 team, probably a top five team,” Gwozdecky said.

Serratore said his team gained confidence with the split against top-level teams.

“Don’t think there weren’t questions in our minds before this weekend,” he said. “We hadn’t beaten anyone with a winning record.
“Now if we make the NCAA Tournament, we won’t go in there intimidated and thinking we can’t get it done.”

DU has beaten No. 1 Minnesota 4-0 and No. 2 Notre Dame 5-2.

Just being behind was new to the Falcons, who had scored first in all but one game and trailed just 26 of 786 minutes before Saturday.

The difference-maker was DU goalie Marc Cheverie, who stopped two break-away attempts in the second period and three power plays.

Volkening was under siege in the opening frame but weathered the storm.

“They were all over us,” said Serratore, whose team out-shot DU 18-9 in the second period. “We had a great second period and they manufactured a power-play goal. It got down to them being more opportunistic.”

AFA senior Brent Olson said, “I personally had four or five chances to put it away and didn’t. (Cheverie) was great. He was probably their star tonight.”

The loss also snapped a nine-game road winning streak, the longest in Air Force history against Division I opponents.