WORCESTER, Massachusetts - The American International College ice hockey team lost Game Two of its best-of-three Atlantic Hockey America Championship Tournament Quarterfinal series to No. 20 College of the Holy Cross 3-2 on Saturday, March 8.
The series is tied 1-1; AIC's record on the season is now 13-22-2.
The Crusaders were awarded an early power play and converted, with Liam McLinskey putting back a shot at 4:55 for a 1-0 lead. Just over six minutes later, AIC drew a penalty, but the Crusaders converted shorthanded, with Mack Oliphant breaking in and scoring at 11:08.
AIC was able to land a counter strike only moments later. Brett Rylance picked off a D-to-D pass at the Holy Cross blueline and was able to skate in alone and beat Thomas Gale for an unassisted tally at 11:37, his third of the season.
Early in the second, AIC evened the score. Rylance passed up the right wing to spring Casey McDonald and Justin Mexico on a two-on-one breakout. McDonald dished right-to-left to Mexico, who waited out the defenseman before sliding the puck back to AIC's co-captain. He tucked it inside the right post for his third of the season at 3:28.
The third period was one of the most chaotic of the season. The Yellow Jackets took two penalties early in the frame, killing the first effectively and only needing to deal with 25 seconds of the second one before the Crusaders committed an infraction of their own.
AIC then scored to take the lead, with McDonald jamming a rebound into the net, but Holy Cross challenged for a major penalty and the officials deemed one to have occurred, wiping the goal off the board in the process and putting the Yellow Jackets down a man for five minutes. On that power play, Holy Cross put a puck in the net, only to also have it wiped away as AIC successfully challenged for goalkeeper interference, and much of the remaining major was also wiped out by a Crusaders tripping penalty.
Both teams generated chances down the stretch, and Holy Cross broke through again on a Jack Stockfish tally at 16:19. AIC again challenged the goal, but despite Chase Clark having his legs take out from underneath him, the officials ruled the score valid, and it ended up being the deciding score.
The two teams will face off in a winner-take-all third game of the playoff series and seventh game of the season series overall for the third year in a row on Sunday, March 9 at 5:00 p.m. Each team has won one of the previous two deciding final games, with the Crusaders taking an overtime win at the MassMutual Center in 2023 and the Yellow Jackets victorious at the Hart Center in 2024.
