April 27, 2011
Great expectations
RIT fell a step short of a second straight NCAA tournament, but doesn’t figure to stop challenging anytime soon
by Alan Lessels/Correspondent
Shane Madalora had an outstanding season in net for the Tigers. (photo: RIT Athletics)
RIT did some bar raising in the 2009-10 season.
The Tigers ran way with the Atlantic Hockey regular-season championship, tacked on a league tournament title and then burst through the NCAA regionals to become the first league team to play in the Frozen Four.
Heck, the Tigers have been doing some serious bar-raising since they broke into Atlantic Hockey with a 21-11-2 overall record five years ago.
Bar-raising, of course, tends to raise a few issues -- all positive in the long run -- inside and outside the program.
For one, expectations soar. A season that ends with a 19-11-8 record and an excruciating, 1-0 loss to Air Force in the Atlantic Hockey tournament championship game is thus not overly satisfying in the short-term.
“It’s very disappointing,” said RIT coach Wayne Wilson, two days after his team’s season closed out last month. “Our goal is to make the NCAAs and we feel that’s attainable here. But we put ourselves in a position to do that, so I guess you can say we really don’t have any regrets. We lost the game and that’s disappointing, but we really don’t have any regrets about the way we played, or our effort.”
The Tigers did back up last year’s regular-season championship with another, their fourth in five seasons.
There’s no doubt they caught people’s attention with their NCAA run the previous season.
“After the success we had last year, whenever we stepped on the ice, there was no one taking us lightly, particularly non-conference, but in conference games as well,” Wilson said.
The Tigers have brought it all on themselves.
“They’ve really raised the bar for every one of us,” said Holy Cross coach Paul Pearl. “They’ve done nothing but make Holy Cross a better hockey program. Instead of being a chasee, we’re the chaser and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. … They just reload and they had a lot of pretty good players back this year.”
At the start, the Tigers also had what might have been considered a glaring hole.
Goalie Jared DeMichiel had a huge senior year in 2009-10, leading the Tigers to the Frozen Four but also leaving them with a question mark at that position because he was so dominant and as a result played so often.
“They hit it big with Madolora,” Pearl said.
Did they ever.
Shane Madolora, a sophomore from California and out of the United States Hockey League, had played sparingly as a freshman, but grabbed the job and would not let go.
“He was tremendous,” Wilson said. “What are the chances of that?”
Madolora put up staggering numbers all season and, when his year was over, had a .935 save percentage that was the best in the country at the time and a 1.93 goals-against average that was third-best.
“Shane’s real, real competitive and very sound, positionally,” Wilson said. “And he played his best when the game was on the line. If he had a bad game and gave up three goals, he stopped it at three and didn’t allow a fourth and gave us a chance to win it. And then he was phenomenal in the playoffs.”
Madolora, who had six shutouts for the season, stopped 123 of the 127 shots he faced in four playoff games, allowing exactly one goal per game.
The Tigers lost a lot on the blueline from a year ago, too, with Dan Ringwald, Al Mazur and Chris Tanev, who signed to play pro after his freshman season, all gone. Those three accounted for 29 goals between them.
Freshmen Greg Noyes, Nolan Descoteaux and Elliot Raibl replaced them and did not do that kind of scoring, but came on as the season progressed.
“Their improvement from start to finish was tremendous,” Wilson said.
RIT returns Madolora and all its defenseman next season, but takes a hit off the top among its forwards. Seven of the top nine scorers return, but the top two, Andrew Favot and Tyler Brenner, will not be back.
Brenner, who had 26 goals this year and leaves with 55-47-102 career totals for 108 games, signed a professional contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs when the season ended. He had a season’s worth of eligibility remaining, but was graduating early and moved on.
The Tigers are bringing in a couple of high scorers out of the British Columbia Hockey League in Brad McGowan of Surrey and Matt Garbowsky of Powell River. There’s room, too, for this season’s freshmen, such as Ben Lynch, who was at 7-23-30, Mike Colavecchia (6-12-18) and Adam Mitchell (11-6-17), along with other more experienced forwards, to step into bigger roles.
“Guys have work to do and they’re all pretty motivated,” Wilson said. “Everybody wants to be a star of the team and move up the ladder.”
The mission is to keep RIT at the top of what Wilson said is a tightening and improving Atlantic Hockey.
“I think the teams that have finished near the bottom of the league have improved the most,” he said. “I don’t know if we’re any better than we were three years ago or whether Air Force or the other top teams are, but the teams that have finished lower have all improved.”
Which helps make Wilson, when it comes right down to it, no matter how high the bar has been raised, happy with the consistency his team has shown in recent years and with how things worked out this season.
“I’m extremely happy and real proud of our team,” he said. “We did accomplish a lot.”
It’s just that RIT wanted a little more.
Allen Lessels can be reached at feedback@nyhockeyjournal.com.
