Conference tournament

Air Force still earned a bye into their conference quarterfinal round, but they were still on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. While it was possible that they could make the bracket without a conference championship, it was unlikely even with their outstanding record. The team could ill afford a bad loss now and they took care of business against Bentley. While they had to overcome a 5-minute penalty in the second game, Air Force surrendered just a single goal in the two games and advanced to the semifinal.

They got a tough fight from Army and the two rivals were evenly-matched for most of the contest, but Starrett recorded his second shutout of the tournament and the Falcons moved on to the championship. The team played one of its worst games all-season, recording just 14 shots on goal, but still managed to find the twine on two occasions. The Falcons rode a brilliant performance by Starrett to a championship and earned a trip to the national tournament.

NCAA tournament

Normally, the Atlantic Hockey champion received a 4th seed for the NCAA tournament. Air Force, with its 26 wins and top-15 ranking, was afforded a 3rd seed, becoming just the second entry from its conference to be given that high of a ranking. They opened the tournament against Western Michigan, who they had already played during the season, and took over the game for the first 44 minutes. The Falcons outshout the Broncos 25–13 entering the third and had a 3–1 lead. Phil Boje netted a power play marker just before the 4-minute mark and it appeared that the Falcons were going to fly to an easy victory. Western Michigan, however, fought back hard and scored twice in the next 75 seconds to cut the lead to 1. Tyler Ledford gave the team a 2-goal cushion less than 90 seconds later but WMU continued to attack. After pulling their goalie, Western Michigan made the score 5–4 with just under 2 minutes to play and all the momentum in their favor. The pressure was eased, however, when Wade Allison took a major penalty at 18:47. Air Force was able to hold off the Broncos and advance to the regional final.^[2]

For the Falcons' second game, the script was flipped and the team found itself down by 3 goals at the midway point of the game. However, just over a minute after Harvard's third goal, Michael Floodstrand tripped a Falcon. Air Force got possession of the puck on the delayed penalty and managed to finally solve Merrick Madsen. Because NCAA rules did not wipe out a penalty if a team scored prior to the ensuing whistle, Air Force still got a power play out of the infraction and scored 15 seconds into their advantage. This left the team down by just a single goal with over 28 minutes to play. Unfortunately, Harvard's defense closed ranks and the team played nearly error-free hockey for the rest of the game. The Falcons were able to get several shots on goal, but could get no more to find the back of the net and the team was eliminated.

After the season, Shane Starrett was able to parlay his stellar campaign into a professional contract. He became the first Air Force player to sign with an NHL team when he inked a two-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers.^[3]