Photo Credit: Kelsey Lee- Violet Turtle Photography

AIC Hockey has gone through a lot of battles this year. This team opened its season in its second game taking the national champion Bobcats to the brink before losing in overtime. This team has a lot of players like Brian Kramer who have top end talent and can score in bunches.

This team also has many of those players not playing due to injury. Players including 64 of its 81 goals are not in the lineup due to injury. Kramer also left early in the game and the team battled as they have all year. Grayson Dietrich and Theo Angsved potted their first career goals for AIC before Niagara used a shorthanded goal to set the course to score four unanswered goals en route to the 4-2 win.

With that said, Head Coach Eric Lang had a lot to say about the effort in this game and the season.

“This is as proud of our team as I’ve been in the last 8 years. We have been absolutely decimated with season ending injuries. Our guys are playing incredibly hard for one another.

We had 11 players with zero and one career goal in our line up, and we didn’t back up one inch.64 of our 81 goals this year are out of our line up right now. We have guys playing out of position and our group battled to the last second.

Get us now. Get us now. While you can.”

This team has been in every game this year, and beyond the box score, the rookies that have played increased minutes like Angsved and Dietrich among others will benefit in the long run. While the mountain to climb to try and make the NCAA Tournament is Herculean give the amount of teammates not playing the rest of the year, don’t tell Lang and his group that they can’t make it there. Those left will battle as they did in the series opener for every inch of ice and every goal. Last year a Canisius team got hot at the right time and rode a wave of momentum to the postseason. This AIC team is looking to do the same.

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