The Spire

Jake McGuire ’27

Staff Writer

Holy Cross may have started out this season 4-0, including two big upset wins against the ranked University of Connecticut, but that seems like a long time ago. They have not won since, going 0-5-2 in their last 7 games. Their slide continued against American International College, losing on both Thursday and Friday. 

On Thursday, they traveled to Springfield to take on AIC, their first time playing them since last year in the playoffs. Holy Cross beat AIC in the first round in a best-of-three series, winning game three in an exciting 4-3 overtime victory that propelled them on a run to the Atlantic Hockey Championship for the first time since 2006. 

AIC started off hot with a goal seven minutes into the game, and added another goal halfway through the second. AIC led 2-0 going into the third. Holy Cross scored their lone goal at the 10:40 mark in the third period with Tyler Ghiradonsi scoring his fourth goal of the season. Holy Cross pulled their goalie with three minutes remaining in the game for an extra skater, but AIC scored two empty net goals to add to their lead, resulting in a 4-1 victory. 

AIC dominated the game, outshooting Holy Cross 42-21. Goalie Thomas Gale played an excellent game, recording 38 saves, the second highest amount in his career. A key factor was the lack of discipline by Holy Cross, as they had seven penalties in the game, including four in the first period.

On Friday night, AIC traveled to Worcester to play in the Hart Center. Once again, AIC started off with a 2-0 lead, scoring both of their goals in the first period. However, Holy Cross rebounded in the second period, with goals by junior Liam McLinksey and senior Jack Robilotti to tie the game up 2-2. However, AIC took the lead with a power play goal with 31 seconds left in the period to give them a 3-2 lead. In the third period, defense prevailed, and AIC only needed those three goals to hold onto their 3-2 goal lead and win the game. 

Senior Jack Ricketts, who assisted Robilotti’s goal late in the second period, got his 12th point of the year, which leads the Atlantic Hockey League. He has gotten a goal or assist in every game this year, except for Thursday against AIC, and he will look to keep those numbers up with another set of back-to-back games coming up this weekend.

Holy Cross looks to end their struggles against Atlantic Hockey rival Bentley University this weekend. Bentley comes to Holy Cross Friday night for a 7 p.m. puck drop riding high on a three game win streak. Holy Cross has not won a game since October 20th against RMU, their only conference victory so far. Both of these teams come to Holy Cross hungry for victory, and let us hope Holy Cross can get back to how they started the season.