Photo Credit: Kelsey Lee-Violet Turtle Photography

The result for AIC is not what Head Coach Eric Lang wanted. With that said, there was one big highlight that came from and unlikely area on the ice that nearly turned the game for AIC. Sophomore defender Luis Lindner blocked an empty net shot by Harrison Israels by splaying out across an empty net. The effort showed and it nearly lead to a goal with the extra attacker at the other end of the ice. Despite the effort which got better in the third, the Yellow Jackets were doomed by a two goal second period and saw the first AIC scoring efforts for Brett Rylance (assist )and Nicholas Cardelli ( goal ) go in vain in the 2-1 result.

Head Coach Eric Lang talked about the night, first on the play of Lindner and some things he saw in the second period.

“ Luis is grade A competitor and nothing supersedes winning the hockey game. He has outstanding instincts and made an incredibly athletic play.We were a little disconnected at times. I will take some ownership there as we were trying to to fly the zone a little to much. We made a decent adjustment in the 3rd.”

On the night and weekend , Lang was proud of his goalies. Tonight Western Michigan transfer Alexandros Aslanidis made the start and had 27 saves in the loss. Lang said

“ Alex was great in net. I thought him and cheese ( Jarrett Fiske) were outstanding on the weekend.” AIC now has four goalies with claims to be the starter and a good battle ahead of them to figure out the rotation for the top two down the stretch.

On the night, Lang was blunt on what changed in the third period. He said of AIC’s ability to hem Alaska Fairbanks in their own end that “ 2nd and 3rd effort supersedes everything in this sport. We found it in the 3rd. Still not strong enough on pucks right now.” For AIC they need to get some more net front in future games to try and get to those rebound and greasy goals they lived on down the stretch. Now the team has six days to get ready to open up at home against a very good and complete UMASS Amherst team. If this team wants to help Atlantic Hockey get two or more bids, they need to win games like the one ahead. They got close so many times last year, can they convert at home like they did against UConn a year ago? We will find out Saturday.

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