By Rocky Wire Reports March 17, 2007(left) Air Force's Hobey candidate Eric Ehn leads Air Force against Army today. An Air Force win might bolster DU's chances of making the NCAA Tournament
ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Josh Print's goal at 8:04 of overtime lifted fourth-seeded Air Force to a 5-4 win against top-seeded Sacred Heart in the Atlantic Hockey Association semifinal game at the Blue Cross Arena.
With the victory, the Falcons (18-15-5) advance to today's league championship game against service-academy rival Army (17-11- 5), which won 3-1 against Connecticut (16-18-2) in the other semifinal Friday.
"I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I can't even describe how it feels," Print said.
The winner of the league championship game advances to the NCAA Tournament, from March 24-26.
Air Force trailed 4-3 in the final minute of regulation, but senior captain Billy Devoney's goal with 54 seconds left in the third period forced overtime after the Falcons had pulled their goalie.
With 1:15 remaining, Air Force pulled goaltender Ben Worker from the net in favor of the extra skater. With just less than a minute remaining, Devoney fired a shot from the right point that went through traffic and got past Pioneers goalie Jason Smith to tie the score at 4-4.
"I'm not really a goal scorer," Devoney said. "The puck was on the wall and I saw (teammate Andrew) Ramsey open on the far side. They took that away and kind of parted the sea for me. I just fired it to the net and saw everyone lift their sticks and celebrate. I was ecstatic."
"It was a privilege to play in this great college hockey game," Falcons coach Frank Serratore said. "Sacred Heart has not let many of those close games get away from them this season. They came back on us, then we came back on them. Give our guys a lot of credit . . . they never gave up in the game and kept battling."
Said Devoney: "We've had some teams come back on us this season. But we weren't ready to die. This feels great, but we aren't satisfied yet. We have more work to do."
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