AIC Proving Last Year Was No Fluke

Hockey
AIC College Hockey News | James Alexander Michie

(photo: Russ Hons)

In response to its worst showing of the season in a 5–0 home loss to Providence, American International didn’t receive a tongue thrashing or a practice loaded with extra conditioning.

Coach Eric Lang didn’t think the usual array of disciplinary tactics would work. His team needed something different.

So, instead, the Yellow Jackets brought out their ping pong table and their paddles, set up a bracket and spent a few hours competing and hanging out.

“I think it kind of lightened and loosened the mood and maybe the tension and the pressure we were putting on ourselves,” Lang said.

All the Yellow Jackets have done since is rattle off nine straight wins, building a six-point lead in Atlantic Hockey over Sacred Heart.

Could all that winning stem from a couple hours spent playing ping pong? Senior forward Martin Mellberg said he isn’t sure, but he knows the value that kind of activity can have on a team with 34 players.

“We’re a very big squad this year, we have a lot of guys on our team,” Mellberg said. “In a way, that kind of competition is good, but it’s also frustrating for a lot of guys. I think competition is good and it fuels success, but at the same time, a lot of guys were uptight in the way they were playing. By doing more team building stuff, especially right in the middle of the season, that definitely helps.”

Jan Stefka emerged the winner, but the entire team has reaped the benefits since.

The Yellow Jackets have outscored their opponents 38–18 over the course of their nine-game streak, and have won close games when they’ve needed to as well, including a three-goal third period in a 4–3 win over Mercyhurst on Jan. 31.

AIC has relied on its defense to create offense, forcing turnovers in the neutral zone that lead to chances. It boasts Atlantic Hockey’s best defense, allowing 2.23 goals per game — also good for 10th nationally. Led by Blake Christensen with 26 points and Mellberg with 23, the Yellow Jackets are no slouch offensively, either, tied for 13th in the country averaging 3.23 goals per contest.

It’s the second straight year the Yellow Jackets have made a run late in the season after entering December with a losing record. Obviously, Lang would like to find ways to make AIC more successful at the season’s onset, but he doesn’t mind that his group has needed to overcome some adversity, and would rather have his team peaking late in the year than deal with the opposite situation.

AIC’s style of play, based on its four Bs — box-out, breakout, back-check and blocks — is one that can sometimes need time to take hold.

“The way we have to play to be very successful, there’s a lot of details and a lot of things that go into how we have to play, and I don’t think we can do that with a quick turnaround in the month of October,” Lang said.

Everything that has happened this season has come within the context of AIC’s massive upset last season over top-seeded St. Cloud State in the NCAA Tournament’s first round. It capped off a program-altering year that saw the Yellow Jackets earn their first winning record, first NCAA Tournament appearance, and first NCAA Tournament win.

After Lang begged players to come to AIC when he first took the job, the Yellow Jackets redefined how they’re viewed in the eyes of recruits and fans alike. But they didn’t respond well to that right away.

Lang said he didn’t sense the same willingness to work from his players at the beginning of the year. They were still working hard — just not hard enough.

There were also expectations set for AIC for perhaps the first time ever, and that took some getting used to.

“The pressure has been different than ever before for us, because we were never in this situation as a hockey program before,” Mellberg said. “I do think we all felt that. I think we have learned how to deal with it throughout the season.”

“It was definitely a little bit different in the beginning,” Christensen added. “But for me personally, I like having high expectations. It makes you — not work harder, but it makes you have to live up to the expectations, or else there’s consequences, and I feel like that’s good for the group.”

Christensen and Mellberg are two members of a 10-man senior class that Lang said has been instrumental in handling the program’s changing dynamic. Lang said the class provides what he calls “internal accountability” — which ranges from establishing the right tone at practice to off-the-ice conduct.

Seniors Hugo Reinhardt and Joel Kocur, too, have been important culture setters for Lang, who has turned to Reinhardt every time he’s needed a big goal. He scored in overtime against Niagara in the Atlantic Hockey tournament championship game last season, and set up the monumental win over St. Cloud State.

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Source: David Eckert/CHN Reporter | College Hockey News

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