Air Force was hopeful that junior right wing Brendan Gibbons’ score near the end of the first period was the start of a comeback. 

Unfortunately for the Falcons hockey team, the Gibbons goal was little more than a speed bump for host Rochester Institute of Technology as the Tigers cruised to a 5-1 win in Air Force’s Atlantic Hockey America conference opener. 

For the second-straight Friday, the Falcons (1-3-1, 0-1) wound up on the losing end of a lopsided final score after lacking the necessary energy, urgency and compete level. 

“We didn’t establish a physical presence early,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said per a release. “We didn’t get enough pucks to the net through the first two periods. Nine shots after two periods is not enough. In the third period, we had a little push, but it was too little, too late. We played with more of a sense of urgency in the third, but we were already down 4-1. In order to win, you have to deserve to win and we didn’t deserve to win.”

The Tigers (2-2-0, 1-2)  and Falcons were even in shots through the first 20 minutes with both teams putting six on target. RIT turned two of those shots into scores. The first came from forward Tyler Mahan at the 4:33 mark. RIT forward Philippe Jacques doubled his team’s advantage at 9:45. 

Gibbons cut the deficit to a single goal with his score at 17:14 of the first frame. The junior right wing scored off a faceoff win by freshman center Aidan Willis and blasted a shot from the top of the left circle. 

The Falcons fell behind by two goals again in the middle frame as the Tigers netted the only power-play goal of the evening. At 2:49 of the second period,  RIT’s Christian Catalano scored on the man advantage with Willis in the box for boarding. 

RIT’s Mahan netted his second goal of the evening at 10:08, forcing Serratore to change goalies. For the second time in a week, junior netminder Carter Clafton’s night ended early. Clafton has been Air Force’s starting goaltender after three-year starter Guy Blessing graduated last season. Despite a stellar opening weekend during which he set a league record with 58 saves in a single game, Clafton has struggled in two of his last three outings. 

Junior Dominik Wasik replaced Clafton in goal and made 14 saves. Clafton finished with nine. The Tigers outshot the Falcons 28-22.

RIT forward Evan Knoyen rounded out the scoring for the hosts with an empty-netter at 17:43 of the third period. 

Air Force and RIT will conclude the series at 3:05 p.m. Saturday.