Atlantic Hockey Preview - Air Force
The western most team in Atlantic Hockey is my selection for the 2nd place team in the conferece. The Air Force Falcons are that team.
Last year, Air Force won the AHA conference tournament last year with a great run. They were inconsistant last year, finishing 5th in the conference and the 4th seed in the tournament. But they stunned both Sacred Heart and Army in the conference tournament before narrowly losing to Minnesota in the NCAA tournament. This followed years where they were near the middle to bottom of the CHA conference.
Air Force has a solid offense to build on. That includes the AHA's first ever Hobey Baker finalist in Eric Ehn. Ehn was incredible last year, scoring 24 goals and 40 assists last year. But he is not the only major player coming back from a team that scored 3.36 goals per conference game. In fact, 5 of the top 6 scorers from last year return, including 2 double digit goal scorers. The power play could be improved from the 17% of last year. The offense is a strong point for Air Force.
Last year, the Falcon defence was generally very strong. However, they do lose a couple of key players from last year on the defence. The good news is that they have a couple seniors serving as assistant captains on the blue line in Matt Charbonneau and Frank Schiavone. They will be counted on to lead a veteran group. The one weakness this group had is that they allowed opponents to score on 20.5% of their power play chances. But in general, this is another real good part of the team.
Where Air Force had some trouble last year is goaltending. They had 4 different starters last year. Last year, Andrew Volkening stated his case to be the main starter this year with a win in the conference final and performed well in the NCAA tournament. He had good stats last year in his action - 2.39 goals against average and .894 save percentage in conference play. Ian Harper will also get some starts for Air Force as well. Tim Krystosek is also on the roster.
Air Force should be a force in the conference this year. I would not be too surprised to see them win the regular season title or the conference tournament title.
Projected record: 19-11
Last year, Air Force won the AHA conference tournament last year with a great run. They were inconsistant last year, finishing 5th in the conference and the 4th seed in the tournament. But they stunned both Sacred Heart and Army in the conference tournament before narrowly losing to Minnesota in the NCAA tournament. This followed years where they were near the middle to bottom of the CHA conference.
Air Force has a solid offense to build on. That includes the AHA's first ever Hobey Baker finalist in Eric Ehn. Ehn was incredible last year, scoring 24 goals and 40 assists last year. But he is not the only major player coming back from a team that scored 3.36 goals per conference game. In fact, 5 of the top 6 scorers from last year return, including 2 double digit goal scorers. The power play could be improved from the 17% of last year. The offense is a strong point for Air Force.
Last year, the Falcon defence was generally very strong. However, they do lose a couple of key players from last year on the defence. The good news is that they have a couple seniors serving as assistant captains on the blue line in Matt Charbonneau and Frank Schiavone. They will be counted on to lead a veteran group. The one weakness this group had is that they allowed opponents to score on 20.5% of their power play chances. But in general, this is another real good part of the team.
Where Air Force had some trouble last year is goaltending. They had 4 different starters last year. Last year, Andrew Volkening stated his case to be the main starter this year with a win in the conference final and performed well in the NCAA tournament. He had good stats last year in his action - 2.39 goals against average and .894 save percentage in conference play. Ian Harper will also get some starts for Air Force as well. Tim Krystosek is also on the roster.
Air Force should be a force in the conference this year. I would not be too surprised to see them win the regular season title or the conference tournament title.
Projected record: 19-11
posted by Komey at 3:20 PM
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