COLORADO SPRINGS — Nate Horn scored with 52 seconds left in overtime as Air Force defeated Army, 3-2, Saturday, Jan. 29, at the Cadet Ice Arena. The Falcons earned two points in the standings with their third overtime victory of the season.
Air Force (10-12-2, 8-8-2 AHA) scored first in its sixth straight game after forcing a turnover in the Army end. Clayton Cosentino forced the turnover at the bottom of the circle and found Parker Brown in the slot. Brown netted his third of the season at 2:56.
Army (10-12-3, 8-8-2 AHA) scored two goals in a span of 82 seconds in the second period for a 2-1 lead. The Black Knights tied the game at 2:20 on the power play as Eric Butte scored on the rush from Daniel Haider and Joey Baez. Then at 3:44, Army defenseman Andrew Quetell made a long outlet pass to Baez, who scored on the breakaway for a 2-1 lead.
Early in the third period, the Falcons tied the game as Horn scored on a wrap-around from Brown and Brandon Koch. Each team had several chances late in the third, but both team’s goaltenders stood tall. Army goalie Gavin Abric made 12 saves in the third, including a mini-breakaway by Bennett Norlin with 90 seconds left.
In overtime, Abric stopped the first four Falcon shots on goal. With under a minute left, Jacob Marti skated the puck behind his own net to start the breakout. Marti’s long outlet pass was right on the tape of Koch at the far blue line for a 2-on-1 rush. Koch fed Horn on the left-wing and the sophomore scored his second career game-winner.
Air Force outshot Army, 43-25, in the game. Army was 1-for-3 on the power play while Air Force was 0-for-3. Abric made 40 saves for the Black Knights. Senior Alex Schilling earned his first career win over Army while stopping 23 shots.
“This series is so special and is so crucial to the growth of both teams,” head coach Frank Serratore said. “We had to flush what happened on Friday. We were a completely different team tonight than we were last night. Even as well as we were playing, we blinked in the second period and all of a sudden we went from up 1-0 to down 2-1. Sometimes in life you have to take a step back to take two steps forward. As painful as Friday was, maybe we needed that to teach us a hard lesson. So proud of our guys for finding a way to get it done.”
Air Force is back on the road next week with a pair of conference games at Canisius, Feb. 4-5, in Buffalo, N.Y.
