AIC head coach Gary Wright needs one thing more than anything: respect for his program. As a coach of 18 years, it’s hard to imagine that, as he, himself, is regarded by his peers as a top coach. <\/p>\n
But since the start of the MAAC, it’s been hard for AIC to gain much respect, finishing out of the playoffs for the last two seasons — the only team to do so. <\/p>\n
There is, though, a light at the end of the tunnel. Entering the 2001-02 campaign, AIC returns all but two key players: defenseman Aaron Arnett and goaltender Chance Thede. Both of these players were important to AIC’s team defense, but Wright doesn’t believe that is the problem.<\/p>\n
“The biggest area where we’re going to have to show some improvement is offensively, particularly our goal-scoring ability,” Wright noted. “Our goals against last year wasn’t that bad, but our lack of offensive production really made it very difficult for us.<\/p>\n
“We work on a lot of things offensively in practice. We have a little more depth on forward and we had two players, Guillaume Caron and Trent Ulmer, on the MAAC all-rookie team. So they’ll be a little bit older.”<\/p>\n
Besides that, Wright will return 10 of the club’s top 11 scorers, which would seem to make for a good offensive mix.<\/p>\n
“Last year we had two lines that could skate with most teams but our third line just wasn’t as strong,” said Wright, “so we’ll need to establish a third line with a little bit of presence. We just need that depth.”<\/p>\n
If the offense does come around, it will be up to a young goaltending corps to help maintain AIC’s sound defense. Frank Novello, standing a bit short at five-foot-seven and hailing from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., will be joined by Chad Davis — a stockier goaltender at six-foot-two from Allen Park, Mass. The two may split the work for the first season, but Wright’s tendency has been to use one goaltender for most of the work. <\/p>\n
Wright will also hope for his team’s excellent discipline — AIC is typically one of the least-penalized teams in the country — to continue. <\/p>\n
All of these factors will need to come together if we’re to see this AIC squad make a run at the playoffs. That may finally give them the respect they certainly deserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A solid defense and good team discipline will buoy AIC’s hopes in 2001-02, assisted by one more year of experience from MAAC all-rookie teamers Guillaume Caron and Trent Ulmer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[322],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n