Photo Credit: Mady Salvani -Army Weat Point Athletics

“It’s not one guy.”

That is what Army West Point Head Coach Brian Riley said about his program. His dream job often goes best when everyone is on the same page and working to a common goal of a win without complicating things. Today, that happened as his team got help from all corners of the lineup, from a plebe to a seasoned vet, the whole team participated in a win that surely boosted the morale of this team heading into their rivalry series against Air Force.

On plebe defender Andrew Garby who put home his first goal of college hockey tonight, Riley said “ It’s always a special moment to see players get their first goals. Garby has as a freshman come in and not played every game. He’s gaining more and more confidence. He’s a little like Anthony Firriolo back there, he gives you a little offensive presence, he’s a very similar player to Ant. He’s just a hockey guy, he’s the definition of a rink rat.”

Riley took the time to praise Associate Head Coach Zach McKelvie (Z) for making adjustments to the plan on the power play for the night. These helped Army find their spark , going 2 for 4 on that tonight and providing the difference on the evening.

Z did an unbelievable job making a couple of tweaks .”Z set the power play up for sucess making the adjustments that he did. Army held the puck on sticks for less time. They used the aggressive nature of Holy Cross against them . “He put together a new plan today.”

Riley’s team had no passengers to night. Riley said that “ I think our older guys took upon themselves” to get into the game more.

On the lights going out in the third period “I’ve never seen that happen here before. I just asked them what we were going to do, then they hit the darn post and the lights went back on and we scored.” Army was the better team after the row of lights on their end went back on, they lit up the game the rest of the way in the third period. Now Riley’s group turns to Air Force, an ascendant team that will and is giving conference fits right now. Riley said of playing Holy Cross first before Air Force that “I think that’s the perfect team to play against, Holy Cross is a hardworking physical team , and Air Force is just that. Obviously rivalry games are just different. Because it’s a rivalry game … these games you just remember. It’s kind of just us against everybody else.” They leave on Wednesday to get to Colorado Springs and then have a full day to acclimate before the series begins. This team in the stretch run needs “ not just one guy” to move the mission forward. Their next test comes against the Air Force Academy this week.