Serratores Surprise

    The coaching Serratore brothers of Coleraine had quite a Friday. Frank Serratore, coach at Air Force, saw his Falcons get a historic non-conference home win over No. 4 Denver 5-2 in Colorado Springs. Colo. Serratore previously coached at Denver.

      Tom Serratore's Bemidji State team had a two-goal lead over No. 2 Colorado College after two periods, also in Colorado Springs, before Colorado College rallied to win 5-4.

      The Air Force victory was the first against the Pioneers in 19 years, and the highest-ranked opponent the Falcons have have beaten since they beat Colorado College in 1975. It was also Serratores first win against a WCHA opponent since he took over as Air Force coach.

     Tom Serratore wasn't thrilled with the loss, however, telling the Colorado Springs Gazette:

     "I don't care if it's WCHA, CCHA, or whoever you're playing, I don't care," said Tom Serratore, whose team dropped to 1-6 against Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams. "The bottom line is that we had a 4-2 lead and gave the game away."

      Denver coach George Gwozdecky also wasn't thrilled with a defeat, as he told U.S. College Hockey Online:

     "I'm very surprised, shocked, disappointed," said Gwozdecky. "Something's not right with our team. Something's right because the effort for a number of guys isn't there. I can handle losing, but it's unacceptable when you have too many guys not competing at the level they need to compete at. Something has happened over the last couple of weeks that has us in a rut."

     Frank Serratore was feeling pretty good. His team got up 4-0 in the second period, saw Denver cut it to 4-2, before an empty-net score. He told U.S. College Hockey Online:

   "You've never prepared to have a 4-0 lead over the number four team in the country, said Serratore. "All of a sudden, the players, subconsciously, start playing defensively, start playing to protect the lead, and only bad things can happen when you do that.

     "I could be politically correct and say it didn't matter, but I would be lying through my teeth and I'm not a very good liar," said Serratore of getting a win over his former team.

Posted by: pates on 1/19/2008 at 10:27 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink