When we last checked in on first-year Holy Cross coach Bill Riga, he was chalking up his first win as a head coach.
The first part of the season was full of growing pains for the Crusaders, whose record at Christmas was 4-13-1.
Since then, Holy Cross is 6-6-1, including 4-1 in its last five games.
“We were a work in progress,” said Riga. “We still are.”
What’s been the reason behind the turnaround? Riga says his team continues to get better and more confident.
“It’s the players,” said Riga. “The plan and vision that our staff put together hasn’t changed. We prepare every game the same way. Players have bought into it. We needed to learn how to win close games.”
A 5-4 win over first-place American International on Jan. 9 helped gain some momentum. The Crusaders got out to a 5-1 lead and then hung on.
“We thought we had that game,” Riga said “(It was) 5-1 and then all of a sudden 5-4. But it was a huge confidence builder, showing we could play against the standard that AIC has of winning championships. That doesn’t mean we’re at that level yet, but we’re building towards it.”
The Crusaders are led in scoring by senior forward Ryan Leibold (9 goals, 15 assists), junior defenseman Nick Hale (20 points) and sophomore forwards Lucas Thorne (16 points) and Jack Ricketts, whose 10 goals is tops on the team.
In net, junior Matt Radomsky has seen the majority of time in net, appearing in 20 of 29 games and posting a 2.50 GAA and a .907 save percentage. In last weekend’s series at Air Force, Ranomsky split time in net with senior Erik Gordon.
Riga’s team was able to come away with five road points in a pair of wins at Air Force.
“(Air Force) is a tough place to win, but the belief and the effort was there,” he said. “We’ve become a confident group that believes we can win in any game in any rink.”
Holy Cross has four games remaining in the regular season: home against Army West Point for a pair of games this weekend before closing out the regular season with a home-and-home series against Bentley.
American International is a virtual lock for first place, but the rest of the positions in the standings are close enough that a first-round bye is within striking distance for every team. Just seven points separate second place from eighth. The Crusaders currently sit in 10th place, but only eight points out of sixth.
“There’s just a stack of teams close together,” said Riga. “And anyone can win on any given night.
“We obviously don’t want to be where we are right now (tenth), but we know that we’re not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination. We need to continue to get better and get results, knowing that we’re playing as well as we can.”
