ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
Fresh off an important weekend sweep of American International, the Sacred Heart University men's ice hockey team heads west this weekend, for another pivotal two-game Atlantic Hockey series, this time against fourth-place Air Force. The Pioneers cannot lock up a first-round bye or home ice in the quarterifnal round this week without help, but every point collected puts the team that much closer to wrapping up such things. With points at a premium, the tail end of the schedule is perhaps the toughest part of the year for SHU, with four of its final five games on the road, and all against top-six Atlantic Hockey competition.

LAST WEEKEND
SHU was in need of a start-to-finish effort weekend and largely got it against visiting AIC. The Pios fell behind on Friday, but rallied with two in the third to force overtime, on the way to a 4-3 (OT) victory on Mikey Adamson's first collegiate game-winner. AIC struck first on Saturday as well, but Sacred Heart had the game's other three goals to take a 3-1 victory and five of six points from the Yellow Jackets. Hunter Sansbury went for 1-2-3 and blocked 11 shots on the weekend to earn AHA Defensive Player of the Week honors.

SCOUTING THE FALCONS
Air Force came out of the break hot, with a road sweep at Bentley, a home split with AIC, and a road sweep at arch-rival Army, but things have been less successful over the past two weekends. The Falcons managed just a split at home against eighth-place Canisius and then was swept on the road last weekend at Holy Cross. It gets no easier for Air Force, which welcomes second-place SHU this weekend and travels to first-place RIT next weekend. The Falcons have thrived on special teams, with both the power play (16th) and penalty kill (14th) ranked in the top 20 in the nation.

PREVIOUSLY AGAINST AIR FORCE
The two teams met on this same February weekend a year ago and split a pair of games at SHU's Martire Family Arena. Air Force took the opener, 5-4, behind a pair of power-play goals from Sam Brennan. SHU had the answer on Saturday, as Austin Magera, Neil Shea and Braeden Tuck each contributed 1-1-2 in a 5-3 Pioneer win.

ALL-TIME SERIES
The two teams have met 56 times all-time, all since the turn of the century. Air Force -- which has been a member of Atlantic Hockey since the 2006-07 season -- leads the overall series, 29-20-7, including a 21-18-6 margin across 45 conference contests. The teams met in the postseason four times in a span of five years from 2007-11, with Air Force ending SHU's season on three occasions. The Cadet Ice Arena has not been all that hospitable to the Pios, who hold an 8-16-2 record in 26 all-time meetings in Colorado.

UP NEXT
Only three Atlantic Hockey games remain after this weekend for the Pios, who have a home-and-home against Holy Cross on tap for Feb. 16-17. Puck drop is 7 p.m. both nights, and Saturday's home game will be Senior Night at Martire Family Arena.