BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Last Friday, it looked as if Air Force hockey coach Frank Serratore’s worst fears were coming to fruition.

Two days before his fourth-seeded Falcons upset top-seeded Michigan 2-0 in the opening round of the NCAA East Regional, Serratore watched the film from the Wolverines’ CCHA Tournament run. He said he immediately regretted it.

Despite having the sixth-best scoring defense in the nation, Serratore said he lost sleep from wondering how his team could slow down what he called “the fastest group in the country.”

For Michigan coach Red Berenson, everything went right for his fifth-ranked offense – except in the end, nothing actually did. Michigan outshot Air Force 43-13 for the game, but that statistic alone doesn’t capture how one-sided the game seemed.

Michigan completely controlled the game’s pace from start to finish. The Wolverines nearly doubled the Falcons in faceoff wins, 41-22. At times, it looked as if the Wolverines were skating with the puck glued to their sticks.

The Wolverines attempted 86 shots to the Falcons' 30. Michigan officially tallied 14 grade-A scoring chances (open shots in the area between the crease and the faceoff circle dots), which Berenson said is “the most you’re going to get in any game.” The Wolverines fired 17 shots on Falcon goalie Andrew Volkening from inside 20 feet.

What the Wolverines sent at Volkening was the hockey equivalent of a 60-minute firing squad. Yet while everything seemed to be going right for Michigan, nothing actually was.

When shots weren’t going straight into Volkening’s chest, they were getting deflected or knocked away by defenders. Air Force blocked 18 shots Friday, often setting three skaters up in a loose triangle in front of the net to crowd the shooting lanes. And when a pass or rebound set up a Michigan scoring chance in front of the crease, the Wolverines' sticks were often tied up.

And as ridiculous as it sounds, despite letting 43 shots reach Volkening, the Falcons played a solid defensive game.

“When you look at the game, they had a lot of shots,” Serratore said. “But how many second shots did they get? How many outnumbered situations did they have? … The entire game, how many backdoor shots did they get? How many rebound chances did they get?

“You can’t hold a team like that to no shots. But we said, ‘If they score, they’re going to have to score one-shot goals.’ And scoring one-shot goals on Andrew Volkening is not an easy task.”

When Air Force took a 2-0 lead seven minutes into the second period, Michigan’s poise turned into urgency, and that urgency gradually devolved into frustration. When an official would remove a Wolverine from the faceoff circle for being too quick on the draw, players on the bench would throw their arms up in disbelief.

With 4:45 remaining in the game, sophomore forward Matt Rust went in alone on Volkening and had the junior netminder beaten with his patented forehand-to-backhand move. But the shot went off the high post. As he watched the puck bounce into the opposite corner, Rust raised his arms above his waist, as if someone had just played a joke on him.

Facing elimination with two minutes left, freshman defenseman Brandon Burlon received a quick pass at the point and saw Volkening out of position, giving way to an open net. After the shot whizzed over the crossbar, Burlon turned and cocked his stick behind his head, ready to slam it on the ice before he remembered play was still going on.

As the shots continued to hit everything but the back of the net, Berenson’s hands were tied. What does a coach tell his players when everything is going their way except on the scoreboard?

“It’s not a matter of working hard,” Berenson said. “It’s about working smart, doing the things that got us here, moving the puck wide. We’re a good team when we use our outside speed and go to the net, and we had trouble getting past their D.”

Ultimately, it was a lack of puck-luck that doomed the Wolverines. And for all his concerns heading into the game, Serratore would finally be able to get some sleep.