Head Coach of the American International College Yellow Jackets Hockey Team, Eric Lang has had a lot to work through this week as his team prepares to play in the Atlantic Hockey Association semifinals this weekend against an upstart Niagara team. Lang and his group have not sat back, and have focused on honing as much of their game as they can. The Yellow Jackets go into this weekend as the number one seed after being the best team in their pod, and the best team in their conference for the third straight season.
Lang’s group is not the underdog this weekend, but his group is filled with players who are, whether through transferring from club hockey like Elijah Barriga, being overlooked like Aaron Grounds, or several others that came to Lang’s group because they saw a chance to develop.
As Lang said of last weekend’s work, « I feel good about the weekend we just had». With the past in mind, Lang knows the reality of the season. He said plainly, «every week you’ve got two opponents, Covid and the one coming up.» As for getting ready for the Purple Eagles of Niagara, the challenge for Lang and his staff will be, as he said «finding the balance between what’s important in terms of what we need to put in front of our guys in terms of what Niagara’s doing and focusing on what we are doing.»
Lang singled out some of the stars on the Purple Eagles like Ludwing Stenlund, Walker Sommer, and several others as players to watch this weekend. The Purple Eagles are incredibly opportunistic, and Lang knows that dealing with that will be one of his biggest challenges. The Purple Eagles scored first in all three of their games against Robert Morris, and as Lang said,« I really appreciate that Niagara team, they’ve played the most games short handed.» The team Lang’s group is facing has a superb goaltender in Chad Veltri, and a very physical defense to compliment the rush style they play.
Lang also commented on the AIC program he has built regarding his ability to recruit and continuously have a big roster with which to compete. Given that both teams, Army and AIC, have not lost very much , and that Army is unbeaten in regulation in its last 13 games , he hopes that how teams have played down the stretch. As Lang said of this metric «our criteria should be how you play down the stretch and they’ve done it better than any team in the country»
To wrap things up, Lang praised the role of freshman fourth line standout Aaron Grounds , saying «Grounds is one of these guys.. he’s like a tireless energizer bunny type player. He’s a cheerleader on our bench. He’s a fresh dose of Vitamin C everyday, and he’s a pretty good player too.» In addition he praised the growth of Jake Stella into one of the more reliable defensive forwards on this deep team and his ability to win faceoffs in key moments.
Source: TERPANESE | Seamoresports