Photo Credit: Kelsey Lee-Violet Turtle Photography

AIC did a lot of things right tonight in their win against Army West Point. As a result of their win, if Canisius does anything less than two regulation wins against Niagara in their Battle of the Bridge, AIC winning the series finale on Saturday in Tate Rink in regulation would give Eric Lang his fourth straight regular season championship in Atlantic Hockey against his mentor, Brian Riley. Lang learned a lot of what he knows in coaching from Riley, and polished his bona fides at West Point. Riley’s son, Brendan is the Operations Director and often serves as an eye in the sky for Lang. Riley and Lang chat daily, and tonight, AIC used highlight reel moves from Chris Theodore, and prolific shot blocking to earn three points

The game started as a defensive struggle. No team broke through in the first. In the second, Hunter McCoy made an in cut against a defender and used him as a screen to roof home a howitzer of a shot for his first college hockey goal.

That was the highlight of the night for the Black Knights. From there, Chris Theodore put home the goal of the night and arguably one of the goals of the year for AIC making a clean deke around a defender and using his speed to drive the net and put the puck past Justin Evenson.

Alec Calvaruso was solid in net for AIC, stopping 19 of 20 shots. Now the focus turns to Saturday night in Tate Rink. Army knows what they need to do in order to compete as Associate Head Coach Zach McKelvie said “ We are better as a team. When everyone figures out that all you have to do is follow Colin and Eric’s lead we will have something real good here. If guys do that consistently, we will be good down the stretch, We are going to look at the film. Have a great practice tomorrow and be ready to compete for 60 minutes. We cannot wait until we get behind to play with urgency.”