Air Force hockey senior captain Holt Oliphant promised that every time an opponent played the Falcons, it’d be war.

On Friday night at Cadet Ice Arena, Air Force showed he wasn’t kidding.

Air Force held No.5 Denver scoreless for 55 minutes and change, and led the visiting Pioneers for a majority of that time, but DU’s freshman top-line center Clarke Caswell scored an equalizer at 4:07 of the third period. Neither Air Force nor Denver scored in the ensuing overtime period, resulting in a 1-1 tie officially. Denver junior left wing Sam Harris scored the winning goal in the penalty shootout to give DU the shootout win.

If there were any lingering doubts that Air Force junior goalie Carter Clafton could fill in the big shoes left by three-year starter Guy Blessing who graduated last year, he quelled them. The junior made 58 saves in the contest, the most in the conference era for Air Force.

His skilled play between the pipes helped Air Force (0-0-1) take the lead late in the first period.

Picking up where they left off last season sophomore forwards Will Dawson, Nick Sajevic and Sam Stitz were impactful again. Now skating on the Falcons’ top line, Dawson scored the first goal of the season for Air Force beating Denver’s Quentin Miller from the left circle at 3:16 of the opening period. Sajevic and junior defenseman Will Staring recorded the assists.

“We have a lot of young forwards. They don’t have necessarily man strength just yet lining up against some of those little bit bigger stronger bodies but they battle. Our guys compete,” Air Force associate head coach Joe Doyle said.

Doyle filled in for Falcons head coach Frank Serratore who is under the weather. Prior to Friday’s game, he said he needed needed 60 good minutes from his team and that they’d have to get it in 5-to-10-minute increments.

He got that with gutsy performances from his Falcons who weathered a potent Denver attack for the overwhelming majority of the contest. Last season, Denver had a top-3 power play unit in the country but the Falcons killed off both of the Pioneers’ man advantages on Friday night.

The Falcons brought the fans at Cadet Ice Arena to their feet in the second period as the Air Force endured a minutes-long shift in their defensive zone. Clafton ended the extended offensive-zone possession for DU by freezing the puck after a save.

The junior netminder out of Grand Rapids, Minn. denied the Pioneers at every opportunity, 2-on-1s, one-timers and at the crease until late in the third period. Caswell scored a controversial goal in a scrum at the net.

The Falcons challenged for goaltender interference but the call stood.

“Up top our guys thought it clearly was goaltender interference but (the ref) said there wasn’t enough there,” Doyle said.

Denver coach David Carle had high praise for both his team and Clafton following the game.

“I give our guys credit they didn’t get real frustrated. Probably what we’re proud of too is you start to get frustrated, we took three penalties in the game but they were all early and we didn’t take any after that even though we were pressing and I think it’s easy to start reaching and things like that. The bench talk was really good. Would we like to win in regulation? Absolutely, but for a young team to come into this environment against this team, they make life hard on you,” Carle said. “Kind of knew it would take an ugly one I mean the two goals we scored I don’t think they hit the back of the net. They got over the goal line but (Clafton) was hard to solve tonight.”

The Falcons will have little time to recover as Air Force hosts cross-town rival Colorado College in the battle for the Pikes Peak trophy on Saturday.

“Hopefully we can recover quickly because obviously tomorrow night is as big as tonight,” Doyle said. “Those guys gotta rest, they gotta eat, they gotta hydrate, they gotta be like pros because five o’clock tomorrow night, it’s gonna be all of that again.”