AIC Hockey a New Era, VERY Impressive

Crowd of Approximately 2,000

Union vs. AIC

October 14, 2016

#22 AIC Freshman Dominik Florian

Shown Scoring His 2nd Goal

First, I would like to state that American International College (AIC) Hockey has done a FIRST CLASS JOB in their new home venue at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, MA.

Parking is convenient.* The Admission fee is very fair and reasonable for fans. The Mass Mutual Center is a very comfortable place to watch a hockey game. An impressive, center ice, large AIC scoreboard and video screen is present. The AIC "greeters" as you enter the arena are very organized, friendly, and helpful. They have a Rally AIC Band present.* (I love to see that!). The Yellow Jacket Mascot is present. The broadcast and play by play people are excellent and very professional. The "DJ" played music is inspiring for the fans and the team.* They even have a Yellow Jacket Zamboni! AIC Hockey also has an excellent, fan friendly website. The Star Spangled Banner was excellently sung by a young woman. The first home crowd was close to 2,000 fans...what a great start! Many other high level hockey programs could learn from AIC on how to do it right!

In addition to their new home they have a new Head Coach in alumnus, Eric Lang. His impact was immediately shown in the game. I had seen AIC play over the last couple of years and this is a vastly improved team with a lot of young talent. I love their style of play. Lang was an Assistant at Army and I had seen Army play against Holy Cross last year. Army was one of the toughest and most physical teams I have ever seen on the ice. That style of play was evident with AIC last night. I loved seeing it, but they have to be careful not to get into continual penalty situations and there was a bit of that last night and it hurt them in a close game. A certain balance has to be achieved with tough physical play.

Union College, the 2014 National Champion, is a very good hockey team. They just came off an impressive 7-4 win over Minnesota in their first game. Yet AIC played Union tough all throughout the game. It was a close back and forth game with Union pulling out a 5-4 win. Nonetheless, AIC looked very good out there with some excellent play from their underclassmen and well as seniors like Captain (Cathedral High Grad), Austin Orszulak. One such player is Freshman Dominik Florian from the Czech Republic who scored 2 goals with accurate, rocket shots from the outside. AIC goals were also scored by Freshman Blake Christensen, and Junior Jackson Dudley.

There were periods of time where AIC definitely outplayed Union, although I believe the penalties hurt. Although I have to admit that AIC had some EXCELLENT penalty kills. In fact in the 2nd period AIC was playing in a double penalty situation, 3 against 5 and they held Union off for a minute and 57 seconds! I have always said if you can't score with 5 against 3 you should go home.

It was a great, exciting and fun game to watch. AIC is an excellent team and will win a lot of games this year. Two thousand fans (2,000) was a great start but we need to fill the Mass Mutual Center with local hockey fans from the community. A chance to see some great Division I Hockey!

* I have a couple of suggestions below for AIC that should be easy to implement...that will make AIC Hockey even more perfect!

1) AIC playing hockey at the Mass Mutual Center is a big plus for Springfield. Some sort of deal should be worked out with the City of Springfield for vastly reduced parking fees. I am copying in the President of the City Council and a couple of Council members. AIC should also contact Mayor Domenic Sarno.

2) The AIC Rally Band is a big plus at games. First it should be centered in the midst of the fans, not off to the side. Secondly, there is a conflict betweem the DJ music and the band where the band has no opportunity to play. NOT GOOD ! The Rally Band should be allowed to intermittently, during the game,  get the fans riled up by playing and leading a chant of "Let's Go Yellow Jackets", "Let's Go Yellow Jackets" !!!  This will bring the arena alive and inspire the fans and players even more. It will be a much more fun experience for everyone. Coordinate this!  It is an easy fix. 

Alfredo DiLascia
Image News Service