Photo Credit:Army West Point Athletics

For Associate Head Coach Zach McKelvie, tonight was another chance to see his young team face a challenge. Again his team fought hard. Yet again they were done in by a 2-0 deficit from which they could not recover against the Wildcats.

Now what comes next?

For Sunday, the Black Knights square off in exhibition play against the USA National Team Development Program’s Under 18 team. This is the time for the staff to try some new looks and get more players auditions. After this week, the Black Knights get an always tough AIC team, followed by a Dartmouth group looking to make a statement early in the season.

On the night McKelvie said that the group is “still learning.” He thinks there is more to come. One player that keeps scoring is Joey Baez, the sophomore put home another power play marker. The staff loves Baez’s markers but knows they are not enough. Zach said that “Joey has been good but we can’t rely on PP to score all our goals.”

On the needed changes he said “we need to manage games better can’t spot teams a goal to start the game on the road.”

On goaltender Gavin Abric who has been another rock in net for the Black Knights, Zach added “ Gav has been good all year, we need to give him support.”

Against the U18 team Zach said that “We will see a lot of new things, good opportunity for us to grow as a group & for guys to show what they can do.”

Moving forward Zach remains hopeful for where this team can still get to and said “ the goal is to get better every day and learn how to become a team. You can go one of two ways in situations like this, our team will certainly choose the right way to go. That’s what these guys do, it’s not in their nature to back down. We will figure it out.”

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