If there’s a downside of having an All-American goaltender, it’s that your other goalies might not get many chances to develop their in-game skills.
That was the case last season for Army West Point, which rode Trevin Kozlowski to a second-place finish in Atlantic Hockey. The senior played 20 out of 23 games last season for the Black Knights, amassing a 14-4-1 record.
After Kozlowski’s graduation, the starting job was wide open. Black Knights coach Brian Riley joked on the preseason media call that he was going to church every Sunday looking for guidance on the goaltending position.
Riley got his sign fairly early, with sophomore Gavin Abric winning the job by the middle of October. He’s started 14 of 15 games since, posting a .2.31 GAA and a .927 save percentage, both second in Atlantic Hockey.
“We came into the season with about two and a half games worth of experience (in net),” said Riley.
“Our junior played the first couple of games. We put (Abric) in for the second game against RIT, and he had a great game. Then we went out to Wisconsin, he’s a Wisconsin kid, and his play was excellent. He gave us all a boatload of confidence.”
Abric was in net this past weekend for a 5-2 loss against Penn State and a 3-3 tie with Rensselaer that saw Army West Point rally for the tie with a pair of goals in the final five minutes of the contest.
“Any time you’re down with six minutes to go and battle back and tie it, to me that’s a good tie,” said Riley. “Especially playing at 2:00 pm after playing Penn State the day before. We weren’t sure what to expect but it turns out our third period against RPI was our best period of hockey all weekend. Both third periods were our best.”
The game with Penn State was scheduled on short notice after the Nittany Lions’ series with Maine was canceled.
“At practice last week, a couple of my players were asking about us playing Penn State,” said Riley. “I said, “We’re not playing Penn State, we’re playing RPI on Sunday.’ After practice, their ops guy reached out to our ops guy. I decided to just give Guy (Gadowsky) a call and let him know that if they wanted to come here, we’d play.
“Behind the scenes, all the credit goes to our administration, who said, ‘Absolutely do it if you have the chance.'”
Despite coming away with a loss and tie, Rielly says these non-conference games will pay dividends down the road.
“I’d do it again 100 times over,” he said. “When you can play a Penn State and an RPI, it’s only going to make you better coming back into conference play.”
The Black Knights (7-8-3) currently sit in fourth place in the Atlantic Hockey standings, with a game in hand on two of the teams above them. They host third-place Canisius this weekend.
“They’re a team that reloaded,” said Riley. “They had good players, and they brought in more good players. In order to beat a team like that, we’re going to need more than just good goaltending.
“We’re excited about getting back into league play. The second half just has a different feel to it. It goes by in a blink of an eye.”
