Blake Page scored a pair of short-handed goals, Jacques Lamoureux added two more and Tim Kirby recorded five assists as Air Force blasted Sacred Heart 8-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 3,004 at Cadet Ice Arena.

“We’ve played well, but we haven’t had a lot of puck luck,” Falcons coach Frank Serratore said. “It seems like we got all our puck luck the final weekend.”

The victory, coupled with Mercyhurst’s overtime loss at Connecticut, lifted Air Force (13-14-6, 13-8-6) to a third-place finish in the Atlantic Hockey Association and a best-of-three home playoff series against archrival Army starting March 12.

As if the three-time defending tournament champions needed more incentive, Army beat and tied Air Force in January in West Point, N.Y.

“I think we are (ready for the playoffs),” senior goalie Andrew Volkening said.

The Falcons scored three times in the first period, starting with Page’s first short-hander, and Sacred Heart (18-11-4, 14-10-3), which lost 6-3 on Friday night, played the rest of the night seemingly content that it clinched second place last week.

“We’ve been struggling to score and this weekend was big for us going into the playoffs,” Page said. “We needed some guys to score who don’t normally score, and I don’t usually score.”

The only question was whether Volkening would get a shutout on senior night. Matt Gingera ended that bid with 12:41 left, and Volkening was relieved 65 seconds later, giving the crowd one more reason to let loose.

“I’d like to say I gave up that goal so the other guys could get in there, but that wasn’t the case,” said Volkening, who watched Stephen Caple and David Bosner finish the game.

Stephen Carew, Derrick Burnett and Pine Creek graduate Kyle De Laurell scored in the second period and Woodland Park’s Sean Bertsch added another goal in the third.

Air Force forward Scott Kozlak was sandwiched between Sacred Heart forwards Dave Jarman (25) and Patrick Knowlton in the second period Saturday night. Photo by KEVIN KRECK, THE GAZETTE