By PAUL GOTHAM
Wayne Wilson isn’t too concerned about the Atlantic Hockey preseason coaches poll which has his RIT Tigers pegged to finish fourth. In fact, the 19th-year coach sees it as a positive.
To prove those opposing coaches wrong, though, Wilson knows his team will need to stay healthy and improve on the defensive end.
“Every time we’re picked to finish first, we don’t finish first,” Wilson said during RIT’s media day earlier this week. “Every time we’re picked for fourth or whatever we end up wining something. From that stand point I’m hopeful.”
That starts with keeping the puck out of their own goal.
“Our goals against wasn’t where it needs to be,” Wilson said noting that last year’s save percentage was 89.9. “That’s not good enough in college hockey, 91 is where you begin and 92 is when you got something good.
“We’ve got to shore up defensively in that area. Our goals for we’re actually pretty good.”
The turnaround could be dramatic as twin brothers Brady and Chase Norrish return to anchor the blue line after both missed the last two months a season ago.
“When you’re talking injuries, it’s really who’s getting injured, not always necessarily the number. Last year we lost guys that were all-league defensemen.”
Add to that other notable injuries which slowed forwards Liam Kerins (played on a broken foot during the season and needed surgery on his shoulder after the season), Myles Powell (took Mondays and Tuesdays off from practice to play on weekends) as well as Gabe Valenzuela (high ankle sprain), and the Tigers struggled to find any rhythm during the second half of 2016-17.
“We were banged up. You need a farm system sometimes for those types of things. We finished up with five healthy defensemen down the stretch. We just didn’t have enough bodies.”
Still the Tigers’ 14-22-1 finish including 13-15-0 in conference doesn’t rest well with Wilson nor the team.
“It stung. We were in a little bit of disbelief. I know we had the injuries, but I really thought that the team we had last year was capable of getting to Blue Cross Arena to our (conference) final four.
“I don’t think we played with as much hunger last year as we needed to. We’re hoping can this year.”
Adam Brubacher was one bright spot for the Tigers a year ago. The then freshman defenseman finished third in scoring (23 points) for RIT while posting a plus-6 rating playing an all 37 games. The Elmira, Ontario native garnered the Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Year award (the third Tiger to earn that honor).
“He’s a fun player to watch,” Wilson stated. “As long as he tries not to do too much, I think he’ll be just fine.”
Brubacher’s efforts earned him a invite to the Vancouver Canucks pro prospect camp in late July.
“Really excited about how he did and performed in that camp,” Wilson added. “With Adam, he’s just got to blend in with our guys. Our defensemen in general are probably the strongest in the league. The four that we have, the three captains (Matt Abt, Brady Norrish and Chase Norrish) and Adam are going to be the core of our group.”
The Tigers will start the redemption process when they take the ice Saturday in an exhibition matchup with Brock University. A 7:05 pm puck drop is scheduled at the Gene Polisseni Center.
Things get real one week later when No. 20 Northeastern, the first of three preseason ranked opponents the Tigers will face in 2017-18, comes to Rochester for the Brick City Homecoming at the Blue Cross Arena.
“I like what I’ve seen so far, but I want to wait until we start playing games and see where they develop and where they go, Wilson stated. “With the exception of the goaltending I think we return really all the key components from last year or previous years. All our scoring comes back. Really the meat and potatoes of our defense comes back. The goaltending is really the unanswered question.”
Other preseason ranked opponents on the 2017-18 slate include No. 16 Union (home-October 20th), No. 11 Providence (away December 8th and 9th) and conference rival No. 17 Air Force (home January 12th and 13th).
Speaking of Goaltending
Senior Mike Rotolo logged more than 2,000 minutes on frozen pond in 2016-17. That means the Tigers have one big question mark between the pipes this season. Christian Short is the lone returner at the position. Short played a little less than 90 minutes a year ago. Freshmen Ian Adriano and Logan Drackett will compete for ice time. Will it be goaltender by committee?
“A little bit, yeah, but I don’t want to do that for too long,” Wilson said. “Three always seems to mix it up, so you want to get down to two. If two can do it, you probably go with it for a while. If you find one is in the lead, then you need to go with one. I don’t have necessarily a preference between one or two. Just so long as the one or two are good. We need to see separation because we don’t play enough games to really juggle three guys and keep them all happy. I think they all become upset with it. Even if you go with two sometimes they’re upset with it. We’ll see how that goes.”
Defending “The Gino”
RIT finished (shield your eyes) 6-13-0 at the Gene Polisseni Center last year including 5-9-0 in conference play.
“We have to do a much better job at home. Our home record is not very good at all. It wasn’t just last year. It’s been other years as well. We’ve talked about that as well. That’s a point of emphasis for our team. Teams are excited to come in our building. They love our Corner Crew. They love the band. That’s great, but we got to be ready to defend our home ice. As much as teams are fired up, we’ve got to at least neutralize their excitement early and then take control of the game and use the crowd to our advantage to push us through difficult times and tight situations.”
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