The 2017–18 American International Yellow Jackets men's ice hockey season was the 70th season of play for the program, the 22nd at the Division I level, and the 15th season in the Atlantic Hockey conference. The Yellow Jackets represented American International College and were coached by Eric Lang, in his 2nd season.
Season American International began its second season under Eric Lang rather poorly; the Yellow Jackets won just 1 of their first 9 games and looked destined to compile yet another poor record. However, in mid-November, after making freshman Stefano Durante the starting goaltender, AIC began to improve. While the offense was never strong, it was serviceable for much of the year and an improved defensive effort allowed the Yellow Jackets to start winning game more often. The team was never able to put together a long stretch of wins but, after such a bad start, .500-hockey was a vast improvement.
American International finished the season 8th in the Atlantic Hockey standings, their best result in over a decade. While they possessed a losing record, AIC managed to earn its first home playoff game since 1990. While they got a fight from Niagara, the Yellow Jackets won both games to win a postseason series for the first time in eleven years.
The 15 wins recorded on the year were the most in any one season by the program since it had joined Division I in 1999. The sizable improvement for the team was spearheaded by the addition of Brennan Kapcheck and Stefano Durante, two freshman that the program would conceivably be able to build around for the near future.
Departures Marc Dubeau Forward Left program (retired) Carson Grolla Defenseman Graduation (signed with Rosetown Red Wings) Justin Ketola Goaltender Transferred to Endicott Daniel Mele Forward Left program (retired) Johnny Mueller Defenseman Transferred to Wisconsin–Eau Claire Austin Orszulak Forward Graduation (signed with Adirondack Thunder) Billy Vizzo Forward Transferred to Endicott
Recruiting Justin Cole Forward 21 Bryn Athyn, PA; red shirt Darius Davidson Forward 21 Surrey, BC Chris Dodero Forward 21 West Chicago, IL Stefano Durante Goaltender 21 Brampton, ON Tobias Fladeby Forward 21 Asker, NOR Brennan Kapcheck Defenseman 20 Mt. Prospect, IL Luka Maver Forward 19 Ljubljana, SLO; red shirt Vitaliy Novytskyy Defenseman 21 Kharkiv, UKR Ryan Papa Forward 23 Prospect Heights, IL; graduate transfer from St. Cloud State Oskar Strömberg Defenseman 20 Sollentuna, SWE
Roster
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season
!colspan=12 style=";" | |- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0" |colspan=12|American International Won Series 2–0
|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0" |colspan=12|American International Lost Series 1–2
Scoring statistics D 39 7 19 26 24 LW 34 13 10 23 50 D 37 8 15 23 20 C 39 7 12 19 44 RW 39 4 14 18 28 C 39 11 6 17 23 C/LW 39 4 9 13 26 D 37 1 12 13 8 F 34 6 6 12 6 D 36 3 8 11 20 C/D 38 7 3 10 4 D 21 3 5 8 10 F 23 4 3 7 18 LW/RW 32 1 6 7 27 F 39 2 4 6 24 C/RW 36 3 2 5 14 RW 27 2 3 5 6 D 31 0 5 5 16 D 25 1 3 4 12 LW 24 0 4 4 4 D 16 1 0 1 6 C/LW 11 0 1 1 4 LW 1 0 0 0 0 D 5 0 0 0 5 G 6 0 0 0 0 G 9 0 0 0 0 G 28 0 0 0 0 Bench - - - - - 10 Total 88 150 238 409
Goaltending statistics 28 1585 12 12 2 20 611 2 .911 2.27 9 510 2 4 2 26 200 0 .885 3.06 6 276 1 4 0 22 124 0 .849 4.77 Empty Net - 30 - - - 8 - - - - Total 39 2402 15 20 4 116 935 2 .890 2.90
Rankings
PollWeekPre1234567891011121314151617181920212223 24 25 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR-NR USA TodayNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR USCHO did not release a poll in Week 24.
Awards and honors Brennan Kapcheck Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Year Jānis Jaks Atlantic Hockey Third Team Brennan Kapcheck Atlantic Hockey Rookie Team Stefano Durante
References