AIC prepares for No. 1 again

In the NCAA hockey landscape, there are big dogs like Hockey East and the Big 10, and there’s Atlantic Hockey, sometimes seen as the little brother.

Which is not to say the little guy hasn’t popped his siblings one a few times, including AIC’s 2-1 victory in its first NCAA tournament game in 2019 over No. 1 St. Cloud State.

“It’s pretty neat. We have our own little coaches text thread,” AIC coach Eric Lang said. “You get eight or nine messages wishing you luck, ‘represent the league.’ It’s a little bit of an all-forone type feel.

“We try to beat each other up for 26 games in the regular season (but) whoever earns their way into this tournament, we kind of unify as one league. I can’t speak for how that works in other leagues, but I can tell you it’s pretty neat from our conference perspective.”

The Yellow Jackets (2212-3) get a shot at the No. 1 seed again Friday, facing Michigan (29-9-1) at 3 p.m. (ESPNU).

“One unique thing in terms of Atlantic Hockey is we have to play our way into this tournament,” Lang said, and his team has done it three times in a row, though the pandemic cut short the 2020 AHA tournament and canceled the NCAAs.

“We have to earn our way by winning hockey games under some pressure-packed situations, some one-and-outs. I think that obviously sets us up for success against a very, very very talented Michigan team, no different than the North Dakota team we saw last year or the St. Cloud team we saw (three) years ago.”

ROOM FOR ONE MORE

Men’s Division I hockey reached 63 teams on Thursday when Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo., announced plans to start play next season. The Lions already had Division I women’s hockey.