Matthew Gleason scored a pair of goals to lead Colorado College past Air Force, 5-1, in an exhibition game Saturday night at the Academy.
 
The Tigers had to rally after Air Force's Mike Rowe opened the scoring at the 16:11 mark of the first period, sending a shot from the left circle that beat CC goalie Matt Vernon on the short side.
 
The Tigers responded and took the lead with a pair of goals in the second period.
 
Gleason put CC on the board at the 3:43 mark, grabbing the puck after a scrum in front and firing it past AFA goalie Guy Blessing.
 
CC had a great opportunity to take the lead midway through the second period, but could not capitalize on a five-minute power play after AFA's Luke Robinson was called for contact to the head and given a game misconduct.
 
Despite not scoring during the five-minute power play, Noah Serdachny put the Tigers ahead just after the penalty expired. Tyler Coffey took a shot from the high slot that was saved by Blessing, but Serdachny scored on the rebound and gave CC the lead for good.
 
Hunter McKown was called for a five-minute major for contact to the head and a game misconduct of his own later in the second and a roughing call to Brett Chorske with 1:34 left in the period gave the Falcons a 5-on-3 advantage.
 
The Tigers killed Chorske's penalty, then extinguished the rest of McKown's to keep it 2-1 early in the third, and put the game away with three goals in the final frame.
 
Gleason put home his second of the game at the 3:10 mark of the third. Noah Laba sent him a perfect pass from the corner and Gleason beat Blessing from the slot.
 
Ryan Beck scored the final goal of the game, a power-play goal with 6:17 remaining. He took a pass from Laba in the left corner, deked a pair of Falcon defenders to the front of the net and slid the puck behind Blessing.
 
Coffey closed the scoring with an empty-net goal in the final two minutes.
 
The Tigers outshot Air Force 39-33 and won the faceoff battle, 34-23. Vernon finished the game with 17 saves, while Kaidan Mbereko, who came in midway through the second period, had 15.
 
Colorado College opens the 2022-23 regular season on Oct. 7, against Alaska Anchorage at Ed Robson Arena, beginning at 7:30 p.m.