WORCESTER, Massachusetts – The American International College ice hockey team took control early and held on to defeat No. 20 College of the Holy Cross 3-2 in Game One of the 2025 Atlantic Hockey America Championship Tournament Quarterfinal on Friday, March 7.

AIC leads the series 1-0, and is now 13-21-2 on the campaign.

The Yellow Jackets took advantage of a defensive miscue to open the scoring in the first. Lauri Sertti worked the puck up the right-wing wall to Timofei Khokhlachev in the neutral zone. He took a hit in front of the bench, but was able to pass through the middle of the zone, and Alfred Lindberg was able to get the puck as a Holy Cross defender lost his balance. The sophomore center made no mistake with the opportunity, wristing in his seventh of the season at 10:45.

In the second, AIC struck twice in rapid succession. Khokhlachev won a battle on the left side of AIC's zone and fired the puck out of the zone to a rushing Josh Barnes. AIC's Hobey Baker Award nominee was able to get behind the defense, and snapped home his team-high 14th goal of the campaign at 7:11.

Not two minutes later, a fierce forecheck earned AIC a 3-0 lead. Casey McDonald won a battle on the wall in the Holy Cross end and forced the puck to the left faceoff dot for Brett Rylance, who in turn fed Oscar Geschwind for a one-timer that lit the lamp at 8:50 for his fifth of the season.

Holy Cross started the third with 3:55 left on a major power play that had been called late in the second, but AIC was able to kill it, thanks in part to continued strong play by Chase Clark. However, the Crusaders did break through at 6:32 on a Jack Seymour wrist shot.

The Crusaders continued to pound on AIC's net, but Clark came up big, including on back-to-back chances by Michael Abgrall and John Gelatt. Eventually, the Crusaders had to pull their goalkeeper, and although they were able to get one goal by Matt DeBoer to make it 3-2, they could not find the net again, with Clark stopping Liam McLinskey, Jack Stockfish, and DeBoer in the final 1:10 to preserve the win.

Clark, in total, made 34 saves in the win.

The two teams will play Game Two of the best-of-three on Saturday, March 8 at the Hart Center. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 p.m.