The first half of the 2024-25 season has not been kind to Rochester Institute of Technology.
Nearing the holiday break, the Tigers find themselves in an unfamiliar position —- near the bottom of the Atlantic Hockey America standings.
RIT has won the regular-season title the past two seasons and a playoff championship last year.
But Wayne Wilson’s team lost four first-team all-conference players in the offseason, three of whom were supposed to be back this season.
After the Tigers’ 6-3 loss to Boston University in the NCAA tournament last season, four players announced their transfer: Forwards Carter Wilkie (to North Dakota), Cody Laskosky (to Wisconsin), defenseman Aiden Hansen-Bukata (to Ohio State), and goaltender Tommy Scarfone (to Wisconsin).
Combining that with the graduation of keys players like Elijah Gonsalves and Gianfranco Cassaro, it was expected that the Tigers would take a step back.
But not this far back.
“It’s been a lot of things,” said Wilson, in his 26th season behind the RIT bench. “We obviously lost players, and injuries have played a role.
“I don’t want to use injuries as an excuse. We need to play better.”
Sophomore forward Matt Wilde and junior defenseman Xavier LaPointe both have missed significant playing time along with several others.
“Injuries are a part of the game,” said Wilson. “But we’re a better team with those guys in the lineup.”
The Tigers lost key players to graduation and transfer, but the cupboard’s not bare. There’s a nucleus of young talent, including the all-sophomore line of Wilde (14 points), Tyler Fukakusa (21 points), and Christian Catalano (14 points). Fukakusa leads the team in scoring, while Wilde has 14 points in 11 games since returning from injury. Catalano got the game-winner against Robert Morris in overtime on Saturday.
Rookie defenseman Tristan Allen’s 12 points lead all blueliners.
“The Fukukusa line has had to carry a lot of the burden,” said Wilson. “We need the other lines to step up.”
Last Saturday, the Tigers snapped an eight-game winless streak dating back to Nov. 9. RIT had one win in its previous 14 contests heading into the game.
“Some of those series, we played well, but not well enough,” said Wilson. The Tigers have splits on the road with Bentley and Mercyhurst, and a loss and tie at Sacred Heart. But RIT has home losses to Canisius and Army West Point (twice) and a road loss at Niagara.
“Against Army (5-1, 4-2 losses), we didn’t play well at all,” said Wilson. “That hurt us the the most. We needed to take care of business at home.”
RIT won its first home game in eight tries on Saturday, defeating Robert Morris 4-3 in overtime to earn a split with the Colonials, who took Friday’s game, 7-3.
With the Tigers now off for the holiday break, Saturday’s win provided an emotional lift.
“Any win at this point is good,” said Wilson. “An overtime win adds a little more. That’s when you all jump on the guy who scored. That’s different than scoring the game-winning goal in the second period.
“And if I had to pick, winning on Saturday is better than on Friday, because you’re feeling better going into the next week.”
Wilson hopes that the second half of the schedule, which has only two real road trips and ends with three straight home series, will provide a boost.
“We’re still figuring some things out,” said Wilson. “Our goal is to regroup and set ourselves up for the second half, and to take advantage of a favorable schedule.
“We’re still working on our identity with guys coming and going from the lineup. We’re going to need all hands on deck.
“We’re not used to this, but we’ll battle through.”
