Hockey Unable to Slow Down Falcons Friday

Box Score Will Gavin recorded a hat trick to pace Air Force in a 5-1 victory over Canisius in Atlantic Hockey Association action Friday at Cadet Ice Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Luke Rowe and Nate Horn also scored for the Falcons (14-12-1, 11-5-1 AHA), who picked up their third straight victory with Friday's win. Guy Blessing recorded 12 saves between the pipes as Air Force held a commanding 38-13 shot advantage in the contest.

Sophomore Oliver Tarr accounted for the lone goal for the Golden Griffins (8-15-3, 7-8-3 AHA). Freshman Ethan Robertson made 33 saves in goal for the visitors.

Gavin struck twice during the first period to give Air Force a 2-0 lead. His first goal came just before the six-minute mark of the opening frame when he beat Robertson to the blocker side while on the rush to open the scoring.

Gavin notched his second of the period with 17:12 elapsed in the opening stanza as he redirected Luke Robinson's point shot past the glove of Robertson and inside the right post to double the Falcons advantage.

Rowe stretched the Air Force margin to 3-0 a little more than three minutes into the middle frame, firing a slap shot from the top of the point that trickled under the right arm of Robertson and across the goal line for his sixth goal of the season.

Gavin completed his hat trick less than two minutes after Rowe's tally, one-timing a pass from Rowe inside the left post from the right point to give the Falcons a 4-0 cushion.

Tarr spoiled Blessing's shutout bid with a power-play goal at the 12:48 mark of the second, placing a feed from senior Kyle Haskins inside the left post from the middle of the slot for his fifth of the season.

Here's a look at Tarr's fifth goal of the season#Griffs pic.twitter.com/X8hfmp8IMi
— Canisius Hockey (@GriffsHockey) January 27, 2024

Horn restored Air Force's four-goal cushion with 2:33 to play in the second, depositing Mason McCormick's feed from the below the goal line into the Canisius cage to make it a 5-1 contest.

POSTGAME COMMENTS
"Today was not our best effort. Air Force was on us from the beginning of the game and we definitely did not start on time. Getting outshot drastically in the first period puts a lot of pressure on our goaltender. Ethan (Robertson) was sharp all night between the pipes for us, but it was obviously a lot for him. We just could not get our game going. I was hopeful that the power play to start the second would get us some momentum. It did not and then obviously Air Force gets a power play goal it was a 5-1 game pretty quickly. So, we have to heal up, lick our wounds and get after them tomorrow.

"You can call it compete. You can call it battle. You can call it the ability to win races to get the pucks. We didn't do any of those things for most of the game. So, when you're looking at what we need to improve on, there's no system that's going to remedy that for us. It's going to be guys staying together; understanding that if you're wearing that jersey tomorrow, your commitment needs to be higher. We have to be able to win some of those races and battles. Our special teams need to be better. Otherwise, it's a good Air Force team that's playing really well right now. They are a lot to handle and we need to do a better job of meeting that challenge if we're going to be successful."

GAME NOTES
• Air Force outshot Canisius by a 38-13 margin for the contest, highlighted by an 18-2 advantage in the first period.
• The Falcons were 2-for-4 on the power play while Canisius was 1-for-3 with the man advantage on Friday.
• The Griffs scored a power-play goal for the fourth consecutive game with their man-advantage tally on Friday.
• Canisius was held to two goals or fewer for the 11th time this season as they fell to 0-10-1 in those contests.
• The 13 shots on goal by Canisius represented a season low in that category and also marked the fewest shots on goal for the Griffs since they were held to just 11 during their contest at North Dakota on Oct. 11, 2019.
• Tarr's second-period tally was his third power-play goal of the season, moving him into a tie for the team with senior Randy Hernandez.
• Robertson made 30 or more saves in a game for the fourth time this season as he finished with 33 saves on Friday.

UP NEXT
The teams complete their two-game series Saturday with a 7 p.m. contest at Cadet Ice Arena.

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Players Mentioned

#20 Randy Hernandez: F; 6' 0"; Senior; L

#92 Oliver Tarr: F; 6' 0"; Sophomore; R

#9 Kyle Haskins: F; 6' 0"; Senior; L

#30 Ethan Robertson: G; 6' 1"; Freshman; L

Players Mentioned

#20 Randy Hernandez
: 6' 0"; Senior; L
: F

#92 Oliver Tarr
: 6' 0"; Sophomore; R
: F

#9 Kyle Haskins
: 6' 0"; Senior; L
: F

#30 Ethan Robertson
: 6' 1"; Freshman; L
: G