Photo Credit:Kelsey Lee-Violet Turtle Photography

Coming into this game , AIC needed to show where they were at. They did not play any hockey in Deceember, due to holidays and breaks, and had to figure things out quick early on against Air Force.

Matthew Woodard,AIC Assistant Coach, had some things to say. ” I thought we started off really well” We got a little bit loose, they took it to us there in the second period.” “Any time we play a service academy team we know we’re going to have a good battle.” Woddard praised Brian Rigali’s effort to get two goals. ” I think the guys around him build off his energy.” “I think the message to our guys over the break is to make sure we are doing the right things.” “We knew we were going to get something good out of them.” The team does have some things to work on, like improving its penalty kill for the finale, and trying to keep Air Force from putting shots at scale for half a period like they did in the series opener.

” I think we created a lot of slotline player (where the goalie moves east two west) if he sees it he’s definitely going to save that puck.” Woodard was happy with how his team moved the puck

Woodard finished by saying “we’ve got to make sure we put a full weekend together and make sure show up and put in the effort, its pretty simple.” AIC has to work earn its first sweep of the year in the finale.

Brian Rigali talked about his two goals and the night “I thought our power play was good all night… we were focusing on moving the puck around and Julius Janhonen made a nice pass over.” The second of his goals came on the empty net. He also added what his team did to solve goaltender Alex Schilling ,”just kind of holding the puck the extra second… and making the extra pass.”

Rigali is “really excited” to see his former team on the schedule as well. AIC rescheduled one of the canceled UCONN games this week for January 11. Rigali closed with talking about the depth of his group in saying , “We have a lot of good hockey players that are pushing every single day to get on the ice, it definitely makes all of us better.”