Colorado College topples Air Force, retains Pikes Peak Trophy for ninth straight season

Four Colorado College players had a goal and an assist and goaltender Jackson Unger made 23 saves as the Tigers retained the Pikes Peak Trophy for the ninth consecutive season with a convincing 6-2 victory over Air Force Friday night at Ed Robson Arena.

Klavs Veinbergs, Carmelo Crandell, Wilson Björck and Bret Link each had a goal and an assist and Zach Olsen posted a pair of helpers to lead the Tigers in the 100th game at Robson Arena.

CC jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two periods and never looked back in the first game of the home-and-home series with the Falcons.

“I thought when we had net presence, we got rewarded with goals. I didn’t think we were consistent enough there,” Tigers head coach Kris Mayotte said. “I didn’t think we had enough second effort in that area and I give Air Force credit. They’re hard to get to that space on, they’re hard to handle around both nets.”

Ryan Koering opened the scoring 3:56 into the contest when he received a back pass from Olsen and sent a rocket from the left point that cleanly beat Air Force goalie Dominik Wasik for his first goal of the season.

Veinbergs doubled the Tiger lead with his first goal of the season midway through the opening frame. Björck sent the puck from behind the net to Veinbergs, who put a backhander past Wasik from just outside the crease.

The Tigers took a 3-0 lead at the 11:39 mark of the second period when Carmelo Crandell scored his first goal as a Tiger during a delayed penalty. Max Burkholder sent a shot from the point that Crandell deflected in front past Wasik.

Björck made it 4-0 with a power-play goal at 15:38 of the middle frame. He took a pass from Veinbergs and beat Wasik from the right circle for his first tally of the campaign.

The Falcons got on the board just 18 seconds into the third period when Harper Searles scored a power-play goal, but the Tigers scored twice in 32 seconds later in the frame to take a 6-1 lead.

Colton Roberts notched his first of the season at the 2:35 mark with a wrist shot from the right circle after Air Force backup goalie John Solomon, who entered the game at the start of the frame, lost his stick, then Link deflected a shot from Fisher Scott past Solomon at 3:07.

Jake Peterson closed out the scoring for the Falcons with 2:43 remaining in the contest.

The Tigers were 1-for-2 on the power play and killed six of AFA’s seven extra-man chances.

Wasik had 22 saves in the first 40 minutes and Solomon had five in the third period.

“They are a very good team,” Falcons head coach Frank Serratore said. “They are big and strong and made some plays. We had that 5-on-3 in the first period and we didn’t score. We needed one there. But we did some good things in this game. We cut down the number of quality shots allowed and we cut down on our penalties. We will see if we can take another step tomorrow to gain some traction going into conference play next week.”

The teams will battle again on Saturday at Cadet Ice Arena, beginning at 7:05 p.m.

Photo/Daryl Batt