The 2021–22 American International Yellow Jackets men's ice hockey season was the 74th season of play for the program. They represented American International College in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season and for the 19th season in the Atlantic Hockey conference. The Yellow Jackets were coached by Eric Lang, in his sixth season, and played their home games at MassMutual Center.

Season AIC entered the season looking to continue its run as the Atlantic Hockey champion but didn't get off to a good start. While due in part to the difficulty of their schedule, the Yellow Jackets began with just 3 wins in their first 13 games. While they got solid, if unspectacular, goaltending from both grad transfer Alec Calvaruso and nominal starter Jake Kucharski, American International was let down by its offense. In just 4 of those 13 games, the team managed to score more than 2 goals.

In late-November, the offense finally got going and the team went on an extended winning streak as a result. AIC won 11 consecutive games, including a defeat of Connecticut, who ended the season in the top-20. The run shot the Yellow Jackets to the top of the Atlantic Hockey standings, where they remained for the rest of the year. While their winning streak nearly put them into the poll themselves, AIC came back down to earth a bit at the end of the regular season. With their 4th-consecutive Atlantic Hockey title in hand, AIC still had to win the conference tournament in order to make the NCAA Tournament.

Prior to the start of their postseason, AIC got some unwelcome news when Kucharski went down with an undisclosed injury. Despite missing the conference goaltending champion, American International had a capable backup in Calvaruso and he showed up during the playoffs. Calvaruso won all four games for the Yellow Jackets, posting a 2.00 goals against average. It was, however, Blake Bennett who was the story for AIC; the junior forward scored recorded 10 points during their run, including a hat-trick in the semifinal against Mercyhurst, and was named Tournament MVP.

American International made its third consecutive appearance in the NCAA championship but, as is typical for Atlantic Hockey, they did so against the #1 seed once again. The team faced Michigan, who boasted one of, if not the, most talent-laden teams in NCAA history. The Yellow Jackets, on the other hand, possessed only one NHL-drafted player and he (Kucharski) was still out due to injury. Early on it appeared that the Wolverines would just roll over AIC when they scored twice in the first 5 minutes of the game. The Yellow Jackets fought back, however, and demonstrated that they weren't to be taken lightly. American International ended up outshooting Michigan 32-31 in the game and scored three goals, but it wasn't enough. Even with the loss, the credible performance showed that AIC could compete with the elite college hockey programs.

Departures Jeff Baum Forward/Defenseman Graduation (signed with Belfast Giants) Stefano Durante Goaltender Graduation (signed with Fayetteville Marksmen) Tobias Fladeby Forward Graduation (signed with Tingsryds AIF) Kyle Jeffers Forward Transferred to Lindenwood Brennan Kapcheck Defenseman Graduation (signed with Toronto Marlies) Jan Kern Forward Signed professional contract (HC Slavia Praha) Sam Miller Defenseman Transferred to Tufts Matus Spodniak Forward Transferred to Adrian Adam Stacho Forward Transferred to St. Norbert Oskar Strömberg Defenseman Graduation (signed with IK Waxholm)

Recruiting Alec Calvaruso Goaltender 23 Livonia, MI; graduate transfer from Rensselaer Santeri Hartikainen Forward 22 Helsinki, FIN; transfer from Robert Morris Brian Kramer Defenseman 21 Wexford, PA; transfer from Robert Morris Luis Lindner Forward/Defenseman 20 Spittal an der Drau, AUT Reggie Millette Forward 21 Jacksonville, FL Brian Rigali Forward 24 Green Oaks, IL; graduate transfer from Connecticut Evan Stella Defenseman 20 Karlstad, SWE Alexander Tertyshny Defenseman 21 Philadelphia, PA Chris Van Os-Shaw Forward 24 Regina, SK; transfer from Minnesota State

Roster As of August 23, 2021.

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition

!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season

!colspan=12 style=";" |

|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0" |colspan=12|American International Won Series 2–0

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics F 37 19 15 34 20 C 36 12 19 31 16 C/LW 36 13 16 29 6 LW 35 10 19 29 6 D 36 5 24 29 49 LW 37 12 16 28 12 F 32 13 13 26 8 LW 37 9 15 24 16 F/D 28 4 14 18 8 LW 36 7 8 15 41 C 33 6 8 14 4 C 38 6 6 12 16 D 36 3 8 11 32 F 32 1 10 11 4 D 25 2 6 8 10 D 25 2 6 8 10 RW 24 3 4 7 12 D 36 0 6 6 20 F 14 3 2 5 4 F 19 1 4 5 10 D 24 1 4 5 12 C/RW 6 0 3 3 0 F 15 1 1 2 4 D 21 1 1 2 12 F 1 0 0 0 0 G 1 0 0 0 0 G 1 0 0 0 0 RW 1 0 0 0 0 W 1 0 0 0 0 F 9 0 0 0 0 F 10 0 0 0 0 G 16 0 0 0 0 G 22 0 0 0 2 Bench - - - - - 6 Total 134 228 362 355

Goaltending statistics 1 2:09 0 0 0 0 3 0 1.000 0.00 1 33 0 1 0 1 13 0 .929 1.81 22 1334 12 7 3 53 535 2 .910 2.38 16 925 10 5 0 39 374 2 .906 2.53 Empty Net - 23 - - - 2 - - - - Total 38 2318 22 13 3 95 925 4 .907 2.46

Rankings

PollWeekPre12345678910111213141516171819202122232425 (Final) USCHO.com20NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR18-18 USA TodayNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 24.

Awards and honors Chris Theodore Atlantic Hockey Player of the Year Jake Stella Atlantic Hockey Best Defensive Forward Zak Galambos Atlantic Hockey Best Defenseman Jake Kucharski Atlantic Hockey Regular Season Goaltending Award Jake Kucharski Atlantic Hockey Coach of the Year Blake Bennett Atlantic Hockey Most Valuable Player in Tournament Zak Galambos Atlantic Hockey First Team Chris Theodore Jake Stella Atlantic Hockey Second Team Jake Kucharski Atlantic Hockey Third Team Luis Lindner Atlantic Hockey Rookie Team Alec Calvaruso Atlantic Hockey All-Tournament Team Zak Galambos Blake Bennett Chris Dodero

References