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>>> RIT Tigers 2021-22 Season Thread <<<

erickuzniar said:
I'm right there with you on this one!!! That UTICA chant was awesome for this Yorkville native, RIT ITFM 94. been going to games at RIT since 91 and Utica AUD games growing up. Haven't been to an RIT game at the AUD since last time in ECAC west semis back in the last year of D3? looking forward to seeing another game at the AUD. Can't wait to rock the AUD!!!! I"m challenging any RIT alumni I know in Utica area to get their butts to the AUD and cheer loudly for the Tigers!!!!!
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Tickets already bought Eric. Will be great to see the Tigers live for the first time since February 2020. Only having to roll 5 miles downhill to the AUD will even be better, Heck I can probably even afford to drive my truck.
 
Scott Biggar said:
The ECAC has been severly hurt by several teams not playing last year. The Ivy's, RPI, Union all shutdown and lost significant portions of their teams due to transfers to other schools. The entire league is basically rebuilding now.

This really shines a light on how much RIT fans owe to the RIT administration who reversed their initial decision to shutdown all sports in the fall of 2020, and to the hockey players who put together and presented a compelling case to keep their season alive. With the great news about scholarships recently and the success of this year's team so far, it would be been a complete shame if RIT hockey had shutdown last year and been in the situation that the ECAC is in now.
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Yeah this was my thought. I wonder how long it actually takes for them to rebuild. Atlantic Hockey can really benefit from this, though. Absolutely the right move to continue with the season last year, this group is really fortunate that the administration went and overturned their decision. All those cancelled and postponed games last year was worth it for sure.
 
larfretz44 said:
I was just looking through the Pairwise rankings for the first time in a while, and I'm shocked to see how poorly the ECAC is doing. Atlantic Hockey is clearly no longer the doormat. With the exception of Quinnipiac and a pretty good Clarkson bunch, the AHA provides quite a bit more depth now. I know it's been mentioned a few times in these forums about getting RIT out of Atlantic Hockey and into the ECAC, for both better competition and alignment with the other Liberty League schools, but staying in the AHA seems to be the right move right now. I wonder if this is just a short term post-covid blip, or something more. Future doesn't look bad for Atlantic Hockey, and that's exciting.
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Let's not go crazy here. The top of the ECAC is still quite clearly better than the top of the AHA, and they tended to beat up on the dregs of the ECAC in a way that Atlantic Hockey's best teams have not been able to do to the bottom of the AHA. IMO that says more about the top of the leagues than the bottom. Yes, there's three or four Ivy's that were truly awful, but their RPI is not that much different from Holy Cross or Niagara's. But at the top you have Quinnipiac head and shoulders above the rest, then Clarkson ahead of AIC as well, and then four more ECAC teams (Cornell, Clarkson, Harvard, and Colgate) before you get to the next Atlantic Hockey team, even with the disadvantages Ivies like Cornell and Harvard faced taking a year off.

The ECAC's non-conference record was still significantly better than the AHA's (by ~.100 in winning percentage), even in an extreme down year for them.
 
Anyway, nice job by the team to gut out a couple of wins (mostly on the back of Scarfone, who is clearly the team's best player right now), and sure - it's pretty scary for other teams to play against a team who's best player is their goaltender (just ask Canisius) - but I am not at all confident in beating AIC in a one-off. I suspect any such meeting ends up much more similarly to the Friday night games earlier in the season than the Saturday night ones. So....go Mercyhurst?

Have to score some goals against Air Force, first, so hopefully they build some momentum off the 6 minute span they won game 3 off of.

EDIT: Also, who would have thought special teams would provide the positive difference after the season they had? Not that the power play was really all that great (2 for 11 overstates it's effectiveness given the two 5 minute majors they couldn't score on), but the PK was lights out and the difference. One misstep there Friday night and they could easily be home for the year. They were -7 on special teams in the regular season, going +2 in an extremely low scoring series was huge.
 
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jflory81 said:
Let's not go crazy here. The top of the ECAC is still quite clearly better than the top of the AHA, and they tended to beat up on the dregs of the ECAC in a way that Atlantic Hockey's best teams have not been able to do to the bottom of the AHA. IMO that says more about the top of the leagues than the bottom. Yes, there's three or four Ivy's that were truly awful, but their RPI is not that much different from Holy Cross or Niagara's. But at the top you have Quinnipiac head and shoulders above the rest, then Clarkson ahead of AIC as well, and then four more ECAC teams (Cornell, Clarkson, Harvard, and Colgate) before you get to the next Atlantic Hockey team, even with the disadvantages Ivies like Cornell and Harvard faced taking a year off.

The ECAC's non-conference record was still significantly better than the AHA's (by ~.100 in winning percentage), even in an extreme down year for them.
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Yeah, I don't mean Atlantic Hockey is better than the ECAC by any stretch. The top is clearly better, but the middle-to-bottom is pretty comparable. Atlantic Hockey may still be the worst conference, but the number of teams that are total pushovers is much lower. I'm sure the ivies will rebound, but I don't think that Atlantic Hockey is in a bad position going forward.
 
In the end AIC was too much for the hot goalie. Hard to win when you're outshot 49-20 and out-attempted 92-36. Maybe their shooting arms will be tired tomorrow. Not a great night for AIC's netminder though.
 
LtPowers said:
Off we go into another offseason. Feels like wasted

Powers &8^]
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Inconsistency just so frustrating this year. Lots of questions to answer for next year considering as more than half of the offense came from seniors. Who knows how the past performance of the incoming class of recruits will translate to D1. Would be nice to find another Wilkie or Hobbs. Hopefully scholarships will let the Tigers tap into the transfer portal this summer for some much needed firepower.
 
Tough loss Friday night. Fantastic game though. The difference between this game and the last few, was Scarfone was human. Still good, but not god-like. But man, that team gave it their all. That Dan Willett save at the end... man, I love that kid. Going to be interesting moving forward with tons of seniors leaving, but Scarfone, Hobbs, Wilkie, and Andrew look like they have some really bright futures.

I thought the atmosphere in that building for that game was phenomenal. Lots of Utica folks pointed out how it was just as loud at times as it is for a full building (and let me tell you, that says a LOT, cause that building can get LOUD). It certainly was more lively than the sold out Utica College/university NCAA tournament game on Saturday afternoon (though they did get shutout, so that makes a difference). Tiger fans really brought it, and the band sounded great in that barn. If Atlantic Hockey wants to keep a neutral site championship weekend, they absolutely have to keep considering Utica. I thought it was a fantastic weekend, and Atlantic Hockey, the AUD, and the City of Utica really shined. Utica folks really enjoyed the quality of play and the college atmosphere, and I heard some really nice things about the venue and city from out-of-towners, which is awesome. All that was missing was a Tiger win...
 
ECAC had a down year this year. Atlantic hockey is nowhere near as good. Not even close. ECAC has averaged 3-4 teams in the tournament for something like 10 straight years. Atlantic gets 1 every year because of the auto bid. This year ecac only had 2 teams but again a down year.
 
RPI finished 4th in 19/20 and 5th this year even after not playing for a year. I think their a little better than Holy cross and Niagara? Lol
 
mar7967 said:
According to a spreadsheet from r/collegehockey, Will Calverley, Andrew Rinadi, and Merritt Oszytko are all in the transfer portal. Calverley has 1 year of eligibility left, Rinadli and Oszytko have 2 years each.
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Oszytko makes sense because he hasn't played much, but Rinaldi and Calverly are big surprises. Discontent in the ranks?


Powers &8^]
 
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