Box Score
WEST POINT, N.Y. –The American International College men's ice hockey squad won their first round playoff game 6-3 over Army Saturday evening. The Yellow Jackets improve to 8-22-1 overall with the win.
AIC got out to an early 1-0 lead at 1:54 in the first when senior forward
Tom Mele (Bronx, NY) found the back of the net off a pass from freshman forward
Steve Mele (Bronx, NY) and senior defenseman
Mike Little (Enfield, Conn.). Army tied the game 1-1 at 3:50 on a powerplay goal when Mark Dube (Billerica, Mass.) scored for the Black Knights, while junior forward Danny Colvin (Vernon, N.J.) made it 2-1 Army at 7:05 in the first.
Freshman forward
Jon Puskar (Grosse Ile, Mich.) knotted the game at 2-2 at 12:26 in the first off a dish from sophomore forward
Adam Pleskach (Beausejour, Man.) and junior forward
Nielsson Arcibal (Vista, Cali.). Senior forward
Greg Vatrano (East Longmeadow, Mass.) took the 3-2 lead at 1:36 in the second.
Tom Mele and
Steve Mele earned the assists on Vatrano's goal.
The Yellow Jackets took the lead into the third period. The Black Knights tied the game 3-3 at 7:05 in the third when Dube buried a shot past sophomore goaltender
Ben Meisner (Halifax, N.S.). Pleskach scored the game winning goal at 10:11 in the third to make it a 4-3 contest.
AIC tallied two more insurance goals for the 6-3 victory over the Black Knights. Freshman forward
Blake Peake (Lethbridge, Alb.) scored a powerplay goal to make it 5-3, while Arcibal scored an empty net goal for the Yellow Jackets sixth goal of the night. Earning the assists on Peake's goal was Arcibal and sophomore forward
Nick Grasso (Smithtown, N.Y.).
Meisner made 36 saves to earn the victory for the Yellow Jackets, senior goalie Jay Clark (New Hartford, N.Y.) stopped 20 saves in the loss.
Army outshot AIC 39-26.
Next up, the Yellow Jackets will travel to Rochester, N.Y. to RIT for the quarterfinal best of three weekend series starting Friday night March 11th at 7:05 p.m.
The last time AIC made it past the first round of playoffs was March 3, 2007 when they beat Canisius 2-1 in Buffalo, N.Y.
