By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Throughout Wayne Wilson’s coaching tenure at Rochester Institute of Technology, every freshman class in the NCAA Division I era has left the Henrietta campus with at least one championship on their resume.
They either won Atlantic Hockey’s regular season crown or the playoff title.
But the seniors of today who arrived at RIT in 2016-17 have been shut out so far, which means the 2019-20 season is their last chance.
“We’re on the clock,” Wilson said.
The players obviously are well aware.
“I think the pressure is on a bit,” said senior defenseman Adam Brubacher, one of the co-captains. “It’s something we want to continue on, that legacy, that culture of winning.”
Atlantic Hockey’s rival coaches don’t necessarily expect a great deal from the Tigers, however. RIT was picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches poll, largely because they lost top guns Abbott Girduckis, Erik Brown and Gabe Valenzuela graduated.
“We definitely have to have some guys step up,” goalie Logan Drackett said, “but I wouldn’t want to overlook us.”
The known commodity is in goal and on the blue line. “It’s not often you get four senior defensemen (Brubacher, Darren Brady, Chris McKay and Brody Valette),” Wilson said. “They all contribute and it’s important they step up and have influence.”
Jake Hamacher and Alden Dupuis are proven commodities on the forward lines, and will be expected to produce, as will team rookie of the year Will Calverley and Kobe Walker.
The Tigers will find out a lot about themselves early. The season starts Saturday at Colgate, and the Raiders will be looking for a little payback after losing 6-1 in the 2018 Brick City Homecoming game.
Then it’s off to Ohio for the Ice Breaker tournament in Toledo. The Tigers play Bowling Green in the semifinals on Oct. 11, then face either 13th-ranked Ohio State or 15th-ranked Western Michigan the next night.
Merrimack College comes to town on Oct. 19 for Brick City Homecoming at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial, then the Tigers head to Colorado for a pair against AHA rival Air Force on Oct. 25-26.
They won’t play at the Gene Polisseni Center until the first weekend of November.
Women’s team building/rebuilding
RIT’s women’s hockey team lost nine players to graduation a year ago, so it’s rebuilding time with 13 newcomers.
But with Chad Davis in just his second year as head coach, the program is still building. The Tigers went 12-18-5 in his rookie season at the D-I level, an eight-win improvement from 2018-18.
“The challenge is getting young players to be consistent at the Division I level,” Davis said.
Providing a reason to believe the Tigers will be competitive in every game they play is senior goaltender Terra Lanteigne. She was College Hockey America’s player of the year last season.
Lanteigne led all of Division I with a .944 save percentage, and she holds the RIT career record for saves (2,392) with a full season still to play. On Feb. 22, she stopped 50 shots in shutting out Penn State 3-0 at the Gene.
“Where we have to be better is on special teams,” Davis said, “and we also have to be able to push back and get a goal when we need one.”
The Tigers get the advantage of playing at home the first two weekends, against Vermont Friday and Saturday and then against St. Cloud State next Friday and Saturday.
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