SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts - The American International College ice hockey team lit the lamp a season-best eight times to earn an 8-2 win over Atlantic Hockey America foe Army West Point on Tuesday, January 7.
AIC is now 7-13-1 overall and 5-8-0-0-0-2 in the AHA.
The Yellow Jackets lit the lamp on their first shot of the game, a bid off of the stick of Josh Barnes, who extended his team lead with his 10th of the season just 1:01 in off a feed from Noah Serdachny in the slot. Danny Weight earned the second assist on the play.
Just past the midpoint of the frame, AIC struck again. On a zone entry, Justin Mexico crossed the puck right-to-left to the trailing left defenseman, Blake Dangos. The junior threw the puck toward the net and Oscar Geschwind deflected it home for his first of the season at 10:07.
Mexico added another point to his total with his second goal of the year, scoring at 15:31 on a deflection of a Tyler Procious shot from the right circle; Geschwind earned the second assist on the tally, having fired the puck wide prior to Procious's wrister. Army challenged the goal as offside, but it was upheld.
Army made a goalkeeping change at the intermission, and the move sparked the visiting side, which netted a goal at 1:11 as Vincent Salice lit the lamp. However, AIC ruled the rest of the frame. The three-goal edge was restored at 8:53 as Dario Beljo and Jordan Biro went in on a two-on-one break. Biro found Mexico trailing the play on the right side of the slot, and he in turn threw the puck to the netmouth for Beljo to tip in his third of the season.
Beljo also had a hand in AIC's fifth goal of the game. On a power play, Brett Bamber took a shot from the left circle. Beljo collected the rebound and quickly passed it into the right circle, where Weight was lurking. The graduate student hammered home his second of the year at 13:43.
The Yellow Jackets continued to pour it on in the third. AIC went over the Army line on a three-on-two, with the puck going center-to-left-to-right from the sticks of Mexico to Beljo to Geschwind, who fired it in for his second of the game and season at 9:17.
Less than four minutes later, AIC cashed in again. Timofei Khokhlachev laid a puck up for Jordan Biro to rush on the right wing. His initial attempt was turned back, but he grabbed his own rebound and fired it across the net, where David Posma waited to knock in his second of the season at 13:07.
Army scored its second of the night less than a minute later. A dump in by Nils Forselius bounced off the boards and right in front, where Ben Ivey, who had rushed into the zone, was in front to tap it home at 14:02. The point for Forselius was noteable as his father, Erik Forselius '93, played ice hockey for AIC from 1989-93 and was on AIC's 1990 ECAC East Championship team; the elder Forselius was in attendance to see his son's first game against his own former team.
However, the Yellow Jackets closed out the scoring. A late penalty put AIC on the man advantage again, and Posma dished a cross pass from right to left that Mexico crushed toward the target. Hunter Longhi was at the netfront, and deflected his first of the season home at 19:37 to finish the win in style.
The eight goals were the most for AIC in a single game since October 28, 2022, at Army, also an 8-2 win.
In the AIC zone, Chase Clark was brilliant, setting a career high with 49 saves in the victory. His previous high was 47, in AIC's tie and eventual shootout win at Ohio State University on October 11, 2024.
The Yellow Jackets are off for the weekend, and return to play with the first of a two-game set at Sacred Heart University on Friday, January 17 at 7:05 p.m.
