Photo Credit: Kelsey Lee- Violet Turtle Photography

First and foremost, this was a type game that got AIC noticed and is the type of game they need to win moving forward. As Head Coach Eric Lang said “Incredibly proud of our effort. Our guys played like warriors tonight. Our will was front and center. Incredibly proud of our effort. That’s a tough place to win a hockey game. That team has the looks of a potential Frozen Four team and we didn’t back off them one minute tonight. “ AIC won many puck battles and lead for most of the game against probable NCAA Tournament team, Cornell. Lang’s group played well and made some adjustments to earn the tie. In addition Lang had some thoughts on officiating, and more on his team earning a point in the series finale.

First, on officiating, the officials, according to Lang, straight up missed a high stick call on Cornell’s second goal which came on the power play. Nick DeSantis knocked a puck in above the crossbar , and the officials did not even try to review it. AIC did not have a challenge because Lang challenged earlier for a head contact major that he lost, but the high stick looked too be so apparent that Cornell’s announcers thought the goal would not count at first and were shocked that the goal wouldn’t end up being reviewed. As Lang said “It was definitely a high stick. I can’t explain what the officials see or don’t see.”

Alex Aslanadis made many big saves in the game and got back in the rotation. As Lang said, “We need to get him back involved in the rotation. He did a great job and made some great saves. Got a little unlucky with the last two goals that I will not fault him on.”

Lang added one more slight for officiating that summed up how he felt “Somehow we managed to take zero penalties through two periods and then took 4 penalties in 9 minutes on the road up 3-1 in the third.”

Also, Lang pointed out another bad thing about three on three hockey, “Coaches have caught up to the allure of 3-3 Good portions of the 3-3 are just boring hockey. Tonight was no different.”

One thing that stood out about this game and this weekend, was Timofei Khokhlachev nicknamed “Koko.” The tall rookie has been a force for AIC contributing multiple points this weekend with a goal each game as part of that. He is getting better at using his size to help his line and is showing everyone why Lang’s staff is glad to have him on the ice. For AIC, they need to play how they did tonight against Cornell on defense to have a chance. That looks like using a strong trap through the neutral zone and being able to put muscle on the other teams through defense first. Koko lives on that, if he can keep this run of goal-scoring going, he will show why on a team as deep as this that he is getting tougher for Lang to not have in the lineup.

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