Box Score

Chris Truehl made 35 saves and Air Force rallied for three unanswered goals to defeat Colorado College, 3-1, Saturday in the battle for the Pikes Peak Trophy at Cadet Ice Arena. The Falcons, who claimed the trophy in its inaugural season a year ago, improved to 4-7-2 while the Tigers fell to 3-8.   
 
The Tigers entered the game shorthanded as two senior defensemen, captain Peter Stoykewych and assistant captain Aaron Harstad, did not make the trip up I-25 after suffering injuries Friday night in a 5-2 victory over Wisconsin. Freshman d-man Duggie Lagrone has not played since taking a hit against New Hampshire on Oct. 25, so CC had just five available blue-liners on Saturday.
 
Senior Charlie Taft put the Tigers ahead 1-0 with his first goal of the season just 1:39 into the game. Matt Hansen started the play with a shot from the slot that was kicked away by Truehl. Sam Rothstein gathered the puck and backhanded a pass to Taft, who was parked by the net and flicked a shot off Truehl's leg into the net.
 
Air Force responded and tied things up at the 14:52 mark when Max Hartner banged in a rebound while flying through the slot. Ryan Doucet's shot was saved by CC goalie Chase Perry but the rebound went right to Hartner, who was nearly on his knees when he scored.
 
Cole Gunner put the Falcons ahead 2-1 just 33 seconds later with a shot from the right corner that hit Perry in the back of the leg and trickled into the net. George Michalke and Dan Weissenhofer assisted on the play.
 
"We can't give up easy goals like that," said CC head coach Mike Haviland. "We have to clean up some stuff in our end."
 
The Tigers caught a break late in the second when Hartner was called for a five-minute boarding penalty after a hit on CC's Garrett Cecere with 29 seconds left in the second. CC had four shots get to Truehl during the power-play, but he made all four saves to preserve the one-goal advantage.
 
Using the momentum from that penalty kill, the Falcons stretched the lead to 3-1 at 9:35 of the second period as Ben Carey took a diagonal pass from the corner by Chad Demers and beat Perry from just inside the right circle. Weissenhofer collected his second assist of the game on the play. Truehl made 17 saves in the second period, but Perry made the biggest save of the period when he robbed Ben Kucera with just under four minutes left in the middle frame.
 
CC killed off two penalties in a scoreless third period as the two teams combined to go 0-for-6 on the power play. CC held a 36-25 advantage in shots, led by sophomore Jaccob Slavin with a career-high six. Taft tied his season-high with five and Rothstein attempted a season-best four. Perry made 22 saves for Colorado College.
 
"We have to do a little soul searching," said Haviland. "Hopefully we can get healthy on our back line."
 
The Tigers are idle until Friday, Dec. 5 when they travel to Minnesota Duluth for a two-game series.