USAFA, Colo.-Three Air Force Falcons had at least two goals as the American International College hockey team was eliminated from the Atlantic Hockey Championship Tournament with a 10-3 loss.
AIC's season ends at 3-25-7, while Air Force improves to 16-19-4.
Early in the second period, AIC got on the board as freshman right wing Johno May (Mahtomedi, Minn.) stole a puck in the slot and fired it home at 1:08 for his sixth of the year.
AIC's second goal came in the third period, as freshman defenseman Andrew DeBrincat (Farmington Hills, Mich.) moved the puck to May, who came over the blue line with the puck and in turn passed to senior right wing Nathan Sliwinski (Castle Rock, Colo.) for the power-play finish at 13:11 of the third. The goal was his fourth of the year.
May added AIC's third tally of the game on a rocket in the slot from junior left wing David Gandara (Canyon Lake, Colo.) at 16:51, giving the freshman a total of 30 points on the year.
However, Air Force's top line exploded for six of the ten goals for the Falcons, with senior center Chad Demers (Grafton, N.D.) scoring two of the three first period markers for his side, opening the scoring at 1:11 and then tallying at 18:32 as well, giving him fifteen on the year.
The real story, however, was senior right wing Cole Gunner (Richfield, Minn.), who scored four times in the game-the game-winner at 17:06 of the first, then at 0:54 of the second, a third at 14:22 of the middle frame, and a fourth at 8:57 of the third, bringing him to 20 on the year.
Air Force also picked up two goals from junior center Ben Carey (Centennial, Colo.) and a tally each from sophomore left wing A.J. Reid (Lakeville, Minn.) and freshman defenseman Phil Boje (Shoreview, Minn.).
Five goalkeepers appeared in the game, with sophomore Hunter Leisner (Garland, Texas) playing 20:54 to start and making 15 saves on 19 shots; freshman Alex Murray (Burlington, Ont.) played 25:58 and made 23 saves on 28 shots; rookie Jacob Caffrey (Bethesda, Md.) stopped nine of ten in the last 13:08. Leisner falls to 1-9-2 on the year, Murray remains at 3-16-5, and Caffrey finishes at 0-0-0.
For Air Force, sophomore Chris Truehl (Stoughtown, Wis.) was the winner, with 21 saves on 22 shots in 46:58 to improve to 13-16-4; freshman Connor Girard (Edina, Minn.) remains 3-3-0, making eight saves on ten shots in 13:02.
