Colin Stuart had two goals and Peter Sejna had four points to lead Colorado College to a 7-0 win over Air Force Friday at the Academy’s Cadet Ice Arena.
The Tigers improved to 10-1-2 overall while Air Force fell to 5-8. CC has now won 20 straight over Air Force and extended its unbeaten streak to 25 games in the series. A season-high crowd of 2,379 watched the first CC-AFA game at the Cadet Ice Arena since 1998.
“They are a very good team and we knew that,” Air Force head coach Frank Serratore said. “When you make a mistake against them, they make you pay. We had a few breakdowns and they put the puck away. We played hard, but we played not to get beat. You can’t play defensive against them. They play at a different speed and they won most of the races to the puck.”
The game was scoreless for the first 10 minutes, before Stuart broke the tie with the eventual game-winner from Marty Sertich and Tom Preissing. Seventy-six seconds later, Joey Crabb scored from Reid Goolsby and Nick Tsiantar. Noah Clarke added a power-play goal with 1:46 remaining in the period for a 3-0 CC lead after one period.
The Tigers outshot the Falcons, 15-5, in the first period. AFA, which normally gets outshot by a large margin by CC, had 17 shots in the second period and outshot the Tigers 25-21 in the last two periods. Air Force had four power plays for a total of nine minutes in the second period.
But it was the Tigers who continued to find the net. Sertich opened the second period with his fourth goal of the season, from Sejna and Stuart just 48 seconds into the middle stanza. Sejna added a goal midway through the period from Clarke and Sertich. Stuart scored on the power play midway through the final period and James Laux added a goal to make up the final margin.
Colorado College was 2-for-5 on the power play while Air Force was 0-for-4. CC starting goalie Curtis McElhinney made 22 stops in the first two periods to earn his eighth win of the season. Kjell Bennemark played the third period and made eight saves. Air Force goalie Mike Polidor made 29 saves while allowing seven goals in the game.
