Denver (10-5-4) vs. Air Force (8-8-3)

Saturday, 7:05 p.m. at Magness Arena

TV/radio: Altitude 2 / 104.3 FM

Series: Denver leads 36-4-1, including a 4-3 overtime win at Cadet Arena in November 2016. The teams split a two-game series during the 2015-16 season, with each time winning at home.

More history: Falcons goalie Billy Christopoulos, then a freshman, won the meeting at Cadet Arena in 2015. It also was the only time he’s started vs. Tanner Jaillet. Jaillet was in net when the Pioneers beat the Falcons last season. … Though Air Force has never beaten the Pioneers at Denver, the Falcons twice won at Magness Arena last season – beating Boston College and Ohio State to capture the season-opening Ice Breaker Tournament. … Like the Gold Pan Rivalry? You can thank Air Force coach Frank Serratore and Minnesota coach Don Lucia for starting it when Serratore coached the Pioneers and Lucia coached Colorado College in the early 1990s.

Overview

Both teams enter Saturday’s matchup coming off uneven first halves. Air Force battled an avalanche of injuries and inconsistent play from a large group of upperclassmen en route to a sub-.500 record going into its month-long break. Denver looked like a world-beater on many weekends but also tied Lake Superior State, Colorado College (twice), gave up late leads to Western Michigan twice and North Dakota once and lost to then two-win Dartmouth. Friday’s 3-2 loss to four-win Merrimack didn’t do a lot to ease Pioneers’ fans concerns about which way their team is headed. The Falcons, on the other hand, looked rejuvenated in routing Colorado College, 6-3.

Denver update

The Pioneers have lost back-to-back games for the second time this season (the first was a meltdown at Western Michigan in early November), but they rebounded from the first time to sweep then No. 1 St. Cloud State rather convincingly. Still, that these losses have come vs. Dartmouth and Merrimack isn’t sitting well. Overall, DU has one win in its past five games. … The big question remains where has the offense gone for the Pioneers? Since Dec. 1 they have 15 goals in seven games, but eight of those came in two games. Defensively, they have been very reliable for the most part, holding teams to 2 or fewer goals 12 times. But when things go bad, they tend to really go haywire as evidenced by four games of allowing five or more goals. The 3-2 loss on Friday was a bit of anomaly in that regard. Still DU held a big shot edge and other than a mid-third-period burp, could have won. … The most prolific scorer of late has been freshman Kohen Olischefski with three goals in the past two games. Newcomers have been one of the Pioneers’ strong points, as center Jaakko Heikkinen has a goal in each of the past two weekends, and blue liner Ian Mitchell got his second goal Friday to go with 12 assists. Mitchell and junior Blake Hillman form a terrific top pair for the Pioneers. … The issue has been the play of DU’s veterans up front. Leading scorer Henrik Borgstrom (26 points, 13 goals) had two assists Friday but has not scored a goal since Nov. 18, when he had two vs. North Dakota. Junior Troy Terry (24 points) has one point (a goal) in seven games and junior Jarid Lukosevicius (12 points) has one point (a goal) in eight games. Junior Dylan Gambrell (22 points) has one goal and six points in nine games but has been one of the Pioneers’ best players all season. One-time Air Force recruit Colin Staub has 14 points. … Jaillet has played well most of the season and brings a .917 save percentage and 2.27 goals-against average into the game. … Denver has been strong on special teams – its power play hits at 26.2 percent (No. 5 in D-I) and connected again Friday. The penalty kill is 15th nationally (83.6 percent) and rising. It has given up one PPG in its past 21 chances.

 Air Force update

Friday’s offensive eruption was triggered by seniors Tyler Ledford (five points), Erik Baskin (three goals), Phil Boje (two assists) and Jordan Himley and Kyle Mackey (one goal apiece). The Falcons welcomed back defenseman Dylan Abood and centers Kyle Haak and Brady Tomlak, and all contributed, particularly Abood and Haak defensively and Tomlak on face-offs. … Himley leads the team with 14 points and was reunited with Haak and Matt Serratore (11 points). Baskin (12 points, team-high 9 goals), Ledford (12 points) and Evan Giesler (13 points) also were very effective vs. CC. In the past seven games Baskin has six goals while Giesler has four. Ledford returned three games ago from injury. … Abood was paired with Matt Koch (11 points and plus-4 on Friday), while Boje and another senior, Jonathan Kopacka, were effective together. … Christopoulos has started every game for the Falcons and has a .900 save percentage to go with a 2.70 goals-against average. The junior is remarkably consistent – he’s allowed as many as four goals twice in 19 games. … AFA scored multiple power-play goals Friday for the first time in eight games and the fourth time overall. Overall the Falcons are at 15 percent on the man advantage. … Their penalty kill was 6 for 7 Friday and has killed 21 of the past 24 chances against. After leading Division I in this category last season at 90 percent, the Falcons have climbed to 81.2 percent after their recent surge.

How it could go down

Both teams favor pressuring the puck, and both teams skate well so this should be a fun one to watch. If the Falcons can win Saturday, it would change the trajectory of their season and send them back into Atlantic Conference play next weekend with a huge dose of confidence, which they’ll need to make up a massive amount of ground to secure a favorable playoff seeding. If the Pioneers win, it would offer hope of a course correction from their recent struggles as they head back into NCHC play and to host a first-round playoff series as well.

For more information on the teams’ games Friday:

Falcons Peak early, score often to beat CC

Merrimack hands Denver its second loss in a row

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Copyright First Line Editorial 2017