Photo Credit: Kelsey Lee-Violet Turtle Photography

Everyone in the AIC Hockey group loves Jarrett Fiske, affectionately known as cheese. The goaltender always makes time for his team, helping skaters after or before practice, bringing his character to the group, and being one of the best people in this sport that doesn’t get the notoriety he deserves for what he does.

Tonight, Head Coach Eric Lang gave him the chance to start the season and show what he can do with the start. Cheese did disappoint. He made many big saves for AIC, keeping them in it early as their new group in front of him worked to get into the game. He also bailed his team out late. They had to kill a five minute major and play a man short because Austen Long was ejected for a contact to the head major.

Fiske played a calm game all night and now has shown Lang that he belongs in the goalie conversation every night. Lang talked about how good Fiske is, noting that Fiske has been stuck behind some great AIC goalies. Tonight, Cheese shined. He was also helped by a Jordan Biro goal to equalize things.

Fiske said of the night “ It was an absolute team effort from beginning to end. The guys played so well in front of me. It is an awesome way for us to start our season. We have a very special group, and we are excited to keep the season going.”

For Fiske , Lang said “You get what you deserve. Nobody in our program outworks Cheese. The guys absolutely love him. He’s a the best teammate anyone could ask for. “

On the night Lang noted some good things and noted some areas to build on , he said “ Our guys made good adjustments. We got a little stiffer as the game went along and started making stronger plays. We have a lot to improve upon for tomorrow. I thought we got better as the game went along. Blake Bennett was the best player on the ice.” Lang also thought Fiske was right up there as well for making 33 saves and earning the draw and shootout “win.”( shootouts do not count for pairwise purposes)

Lang did note one major area to improve on.

He said “ We need to stay out of the box. We can’t play man down like we did. It’s taxing and our best players don’t get on the ice.”

Round two comes late on Sunday at 8:07 Eastern time where AIC will look to generate the chances it did throughout the game and tighten up on some things to try and get out of Fairbanks with three of four points.

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