The issue before Air Force was the power play. The perspective on the issue is frightening, yet comforting.

The Falcons were 0-for-27 on the power play — a span of more than five games — before scoring three times against Connecticut this past weekend. Even with the slump, Air Force is second nationally in power-play percentage (22.6 percent). Sophomore Jacques Lamoureux is the national leader in power-play goals (12).

So why the dry spell?

• “The biggest thing is we’ve gotten away from what’s given us success,” Lamoureux said last week. “And that’s puck movement, getting pucks to the net, getting pucks on net, shooting with velocity and getting guys to those dirty areas to score goals.”

• “Now teams are doing game film on us,” said Jeff Hajner, tied with Matt Fairchild for second on the team with four power-play goals. “I think everyone is so keyed in on how we run our power play, and we’re so set in our ways, that they’re in all the shooting lanes so we’re not getting the same shots we were getting before.”

• “I think we need to get back to basics, making simple plays, not trying to force things,” said Josh Frider, who has three power-play goals. “That’s always a key on the power play.”

• “We have a game plan and we want to stick to that as much as possible, but we need to be ready and able to adapt to what the other teams are doing as well, a take-what-they-give-you type of deal,” said Brent Olson, who is tied for the team lead in assists at 24 with Greg Flynn.

These are not divergent views. As assistant Mike Corbett pointed out, they are parts of the problem and the solution.

“We’ve got to become more efficient at options two and three,” he said.

Air Force wants to set up in the offensive zone and, with a player along the side boards quarterbacking, decide whether to move to shoot the puck or dump it back to the point for what hopefully will be a screened shot. Of course, there are variables off that set.

“In certain games earlier, we were having trouble getting into the zone and getting set up,” Corbett said. “(Against Mercyhurst, a tie and loss), … their goalie was their best penalty killer. We got the shots we wanted, but we didn’t get the traffic in front we needed.”

Traffic usually means Lamoureux or Fairchild. Fairchild scored twice on the power play Friday against UConn and Lamoureux scored Saturday to complete a hat trick with his nation-leading 23rd goal.

But Lamoureux said there have been other factors.

“We’ve taken so many penalties ourselves, which is detrimental, because some of our power-play guys kill penalties a lot so they’re spending a lot of energy doing that,” he said.

To improve, “We’ve got to do little things better,” Corbett said. “Move around, get pucks to the net, be ready to shoot, things we’ve been preaching all year, but we’re not doing efficiently right now.”

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