{"id":145729,"date":"2024-03-07T10:00:41","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=145729"},"modified":"2024-03-06T22:04:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T04:04:26","slug":"this-week-in-atlantic-hockey-dealing-with-injuries-aic-moving-forward-ready-to-take-this-reinvented-version-of-aic-hockey-into-the-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2024\/03\/07\/this-week-in-atlantic-hockey-dealing-with-injuries-aic-moving-forward-ready-to-take-this-reinvented-version-of-aic-hockey-into-the-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Dealing with injuries, AIC moving forward, ‘ready to take this reinvented version of AIC hockey into the playoffs’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nils Wallstrom has been sharp in net this season for AIC (photo: AIC Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the past several weeks, it’s been a “next man up” mentality for American International, which has seen a crippling rash of injuries over the final month of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Key players including Alfred Lindberg (22 points), Brian Kramer (20 points), Alexander Malinowski (20 points), and John Lundy (19 points) all suffered what are likely to be season-ending injuries in a two-week span in late January and early February. That’s four of the Yellow Jackets’ top seven scorers. Other players are out indefinitely, and more are working through injuries.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a challenge, losing so many players”, said AIC coach Eric Lang. “We carry a large roster, and if we didn’t, there were a couple of games that I’m not sure we would have been able to put a team on the ice. If we had 27 or 28 guys (on the roster), that would have been challenging.”<\/p>\n

The Yellow Jackets went through a 1-5 stretch after the rash of injuries, but have righted the ship in recent weeks, ending the regular season on a 2-0-3 run, good enough for fifth place and a first-round playoff bye.<\/p>\n

“At one point, we were going with 10 or 11 players who had zero points,” said Lang. “Against Army, I think that they had over 100 (combined) points more than our team did, so we had to accelerate our development.”<\/p>\n

AIC has used 34 players in the lineup to date, but one constant has been freshman netminder Nils Wallstrom (2.42 GAA, .912 save percentage) supplemented by senior Alexandros Aslanidis (3.77 GAA, .868 save percentage).<\/p>\n

Losing so much skill and experience has changed Lang’s approach.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had to reinvent ourselves, defending and on our forecheck,” he said. “In the past, we felt like we could beat you 5-4. But that’s changed due to the amount of scoring we’re missing.”<\/p>\n

But it’s been paying off over the final weekends of the season and heading into a showdown with Air Force.<\/p>\n

“I’ve consistently told our guys how proud I am of our resiliency,” said Lang. “It’s been next man up, go for 45 seconds, and then the next guy in. There’s been a learning curve, but we’ve started to believe that we can take care of the puck, limit odd-man rushes, and be physical to hang around and pull out a good result.”<\/p>\n

“We’re ready to take this reinvented version of AIC hockey into the playoffs.”<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the quarterfinals<\/h4>\n

This weekend will see the playoff field winnowed down to four as the three survivors from the first round join the top five seeds, which had byes last weekend.<\/p>\n

These are best of three series.<\/p>\n

No. 11 Robert Morris at No. 1 Rochester Institute of Technology<\/b>
\nThe Colonials pulled off the only upset of the first round with a 4-3 overtime win at Bentley. The Falcons erased a 3-1 RMU lead with a pair of third-period goals, but Cameron Garvey converted a Bentley turnover with 10 seconds left in overtime. Three of Garvey’s 11 goals have come against Bentley.<\/p>\n

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HOCKEY!!!!! #NCAAHockey<\/a> x \ud83c\udfa5 ESPN+ \/ @RMUMHockey<\/a>
pic.twitter.com\/4jWjDtrKV6<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) March 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n