Photo Credit: Seth Dussault- AIC Athletics

For AIC, one thing before this weekend has been a constant. Their underclassmen are driving the bus a lot more than previous teams. This weekend we saw a sensational example of that as Casper Soderling and John Lundy found the scoresheet in Thursday and Friday’s victories over Holy Cross.

AIC Head Coach Eric Lang had this to say about Soderling. “Casper is incredibly skilled. He’s been very patient inside of waiting his turn. He’s a power play wizard. I’m so happy for him.” On defense Lang has many more talented players than the room in his lineup card that he is given. Lang added of Casper that “He’s always been incredibly skilled and extremely hard defender. Honestly he’s been on the wrong side of circumstances. Our D are our strength of our team.”

Soderling is making his presence known and has done so with a small sample size. Up front John Lundy showed his skill this weekend as well. The sophomore forward put home two goals in the series finale including the game winner.

Lundy and Soderling both have eyes for the puck and high hockey IQs. Both could have easily left in the transfer portal after last season, especially given the class Lang brought in. Both stayed, both got better, and both played key roles in getting the Yellow Jackets six points on the weekend. Lundy’s game winner in the series finale, combined with a consistent play on the back end from Soderling are two big reasons why AIC got their first sweep of the year against the team that ended their postseason run before it began last year in the first round. AIC more than any other program at this level runs the risk not just of losing players to the portal, but of losing top end players to the portal. They run this risk because Lang likes to have one of the biggest rosters to have the best practices with, and one that is always challenging each other. Thus Soderling and Lundy could have felt they learned what they could and went elsewhere for more of a sure thing than ice time in Springfield ever is.

To their credit, they stayed, and it has payed off in spades this year.

Donate: To help us cover more games and tell more stories not found elsewhere about all of college sports, especially under represented athletes everywhere across the college sports landscape like unique untold stories across college hockey. Please click the below link and consider donating what you can. If you do, I will list you in every story we write as a supporter of crowd-funded journalism that can truly be free for all at this link. 

Donate