By PAUL GOTHAM
Matthew Wilde finished the 2023-24 NCAA Hockey season with 19 goals and 16 assists for 35 points in 40 games. Then a first-year player, Wilde collected 10 goals and seven assists in the final 11 games after he and linemates Tyler Fukakusa and Christian Catalano had moved from the fourth to second line in the RIT attack.
If the Tigers are to win a third straight Atlantic Hockey regular season championship and clinch back-to-back trips to an NCAA regional, Catalano, Fukakusa and Wilde will need to continue their scoring trends from the end of last season.
The challenge will be for the three sophomores to deliver when it is expected.
“We spoke with them in the summer,” RIT head coach Wayne Wilson said during the team’s recent preseason media day. “Like it or not, people are going to look up to what they did last year. They’re going to have to be leaders on the team as sophomores. They’re getting pushed into that role just because of circumstances. How are they going to handle it?”
Wilde had a goal and an assist in RIT’s 7-0 win over Robert Morris to open the Atlantic Hockey tournament. He found the back of the net twice in a 5-2 victory over American International to clinch the AHA championship.
Fukakusa, who finished with 19 points (9 goals, 19 assists) on the season, had four goals and nine assists in the final nine games including three goals and three assists in the quarterfinal sweep of Robert Morris.
“Last year was a big step for us,” Fukakusa said. “We have expectations this year from the coaching staff and from ourselves. It doesn’t really put that much pressure on us, but at the same time, we know we have to be a big part of the team’s success for the future.”
The three were linemates during the 2021-22 season with the Toronto Jr. Canadians of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. Wilde and Fukakusa were paired together again during 2022-23 before the trio arrived at RIT as part of the first class of players to receive athletic scholarships.
“For them, it’s going to be handling frustration,” Wilson said. “Already during our practices they’re O-for-3 on the power play, and they’re banging their sticks and stuff. You get one goal and you’re 25 percent which is leading the country. It’s a mindset of being mature enough to handle it.”
Wilson’s squad will face two tough tests when it opens the season this weekend on the road.
“This schedule is not by design, but it probably fits this team as well as we could ask with a lot of home games in the second half,” Wilson said.
RIT heads north to face St. Lawrence on Saturday. A 7 p.m. puck drop is scheduled at Appleton Arena in Canton, New York. The following afternoon, Clarkson will welcome the Tigers for a 4 p.m. start at Cheel Arena in Potsdam.
One week later, they open Atlantic Hockey play at Mercyhurst.
“It’s good for a young team,” Wilson said. “Older teams are better suited to handle playing at home and all the expectations. We’ve got a lot young guys. We don’t want to put all that on them right now.”
A young team, though, that enters the season as reigning league champions.
How to keep expectations from becoming a burden is a priority for Wilson and his staff.
“For me, these guys have to enjoy coming to the rink. There’s got be enjoyment in competing and working hard. There’s got to be a satisfaction after a hard practice or after a hard game that they’ve accomplished something. It should make you feel good that you’re doing something. Obviously, winning makes it more enjoyable, but I think even practice has to be enjoyable.”
There’s also the reality that the Tigers finished with 6 wins and 5 losses in games decided by one goal during 2023-24. That’s not counting a a pair of ties and the victory over AIC in the Atlantic Hockey championship game when the Tigers added a pair of empty-net tallies in the final two minutes of the game.
“We talk about that,” Wilson said. “We talk about how hard it really was. An accumulation of one-goal wins, you forget about how nervous you were at the end of that game. You had the puck in your end for the whole last minute, and you’re up by one. You forget how close those games were. The guys know that they didn’t walk through anything. Nothing was easy. The more experience you have, you learn that.”
Wilson and the RIT coaching staff expected to have more experience for the upcoming season. That is until the transfer portal took effect on the lineup. Both leading scorer Carter Wilkie (University of North Dakota) and starting goaltender Tommy Scarfone (University of Wisconsin) moved on to traditional powerhouses.
Those departures along with the graduations of Elijah Gonsalves, Gianfranco Cassaro, Caleb Moretz and Ryan Nicholson left a void in the team’s leadership.
“When we stepped off the ice it was like, geez we might have team that’s capable of going to the Frozen Four,” Wilson said. “It’s a long year and everything’s got go right, but we never really had time to celebrate. As soon as we won, it’s like back on the road. It was a grind in the spring because we had to replace people.”
RIT hosts Bowling Green on September 19th at the Blue Cross Arena as part of the Brick City Homecoming weekend.
“We’re excited for it,” Fukakusa said of the upcoming season. “We look back on last year and try to pick parts of what we did well and what made us successful. Then staying hungry and wanting to do it again this year. Bringing the same culture and work ethic to practice.”
Wilson pointed to returning players Dimitri Mikrogiannakis, Xavier LaPointe, Tanner Andrew, Grady Hobbs and Simon Isabelle who will all step into larger roles in 2024-25.
“Those guys have been waiting their turn. They’re getting an opportunity on the power play. Now they got to produce which is a whole different mindset in and of itself. Everybody wants those opportunities. There are a lot of unknowns. How are they going to react? You don’t know until we start to play other teams.”
Good Luck Tigers.