The 2018–19 American International Yellow Jackets men's ice hockey season was the 71st season of play for the program, the 23rd at the Division I level, and the 16th season in the Atlantic Hockey conference. The Yellow Jackets represented American International College and were coached by Eric Lang, in his 3rd season.
Season Fresh off of their best performance since joining Division I in 1999, American International upped the difficulty of their season by scheduling several strong opponents for 2019. They performed well in the season opener against Providence but then went through a bit of a skid as they tried to settle on the team's starting goaltender. By mid-November the team seemed to be stuck in the mud with an inconsistent offense and a porous defense. A stunning series sweep of Air Force, however, seemed to put the Yellow Jackets back on track; Zackarias Skog shut out the Falcons in both games and took full control of the AIC net for the remainder of the season. The team's offense, too, found its footing the same weekend and proved to be much more dependable afterwards.
A 5-game winning streak helped push American International towards the top of the conference standings and the Yellow Jackets looked primed to compile their first winning season in 25 years. The only real trouble for AIC looked to be its performance in non-conference games. A loss to Massachusetts just after new year's was their third strait embarrassing defeat by a team outside of their conference. By all appearances, the Yellow Jackets looked to be able to compete in Atlantic Hockey, but woefully unprepared for the upper echelon of college hockey.
After dropping its second weekend to RIT that year, AIC went on an 8–1 run that propelled them to the top of the standings. Not only did it guarantee the Yellow Jackets a winning record, but it gave them an 8-point cushion for the conference title. While the rest of Atlantic Hockey scrambled to catch up, American International headed off to Arizona and took on the 12th-ranked Sun Devils. While their non-conference losing streak continued, AIC fared far better than they had previously, fighting back from a 3-goal deficit in the second game to force overtime.
After returning home, the teams chasing AIC had made up some ground but not enough. The Yellow Jackets split their final weekend and finished 3 points ahead of second place to take their first Atlantic Hockey crown and the first regular season championship of any kind for the program. While the team was riding high, their placement in the Pairwise ranks left the team with only one way of making the NCAA Tournament; a conference championship.
AIC received a bye into the conference quarterfinal and welcomed Army for its final home games of the year. They got a tough fight from the service academy, but still managed to pull out a win in the series, advancing to a semifinal round for the first time since 1990. Despite facing the 8th-seed in the next round, AIC was pushed to the limit and saw the game go into overtime. Fortunately, the team's leading scorer, Blake Christensen, found the back of the net first and sent American International to the championship game. The match with Niagara was nearly a carbon-copy of the semifinal, with Christensen assisting on the winning goal in overtime. American International, with its first Atlantic Hockey championship, received the conference's automatic bid and was set to play the first NCAA tournament game in its 71-year history.
Entering the tournament, AIC was unsurprisingly ranked as the 16th-and last team in the field. They travelled out to North Dakota to face top-seeded St. Cloud State and weren't expect to amount to much. The game began slow, with both teams only recording 6 shots in the first period, but AIC found itself with a 1–0 lead. The Huskies began attacking the Yellow Jacket goal in the second but Skog stood firm and turned aside all shots. Instead, it was American International who scored to double their advantage and as the third began, St. Cloud began to become more frantic. The Huskies cut the lead in half with a power play marker around the mid-point of the period, but that was all that Skog and the defense would allow. Despite firing nearly three times as many shots, St. Cloud went down to defeat in American International's first NCAA tournament game.
When AIC ended up losing the next game, the team ended the season with a first appearance in the NCAA tournament and a victory.
Departures Andrew DeBrincat Defenseman Graduation (signed with Indy Fuel) Jackson Dudley Forward Graduation (retired) Dominik Florián Forward Signed professional contract (Coventry Blaze) Johno May Forward Graduation (signed with Greenville Swamp Rabbits) Alex Murray Goaltender Graduation (signed with Fayetteville Marksmen) Dominic Racobaldo Defenseman Graduation (retired)
Recruiting Elijiah Barriga Forward 22 West Covina, CA; transfer from UNLV Jeff Baum Defenseman 22 Colleyville, TX; transfer from Providence Samuel Best Goaltender 20 Woburn, MA; joined mid-season; redshirt Eric Otto Forward 21 Burnsville, MN Evan Plotnik Goaltender 21 Capistrano Beach, CA Parker Revering Defenseman 21 Alexandria, MN Matúš Spodniak Forward 20 Košice, SVK Jan Štefka Forward 21 Olomouc, CZE Chris Theodore Forward 20 Beaconsfield, QC
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 2–1
!colspan=12 style=";" |
Scoring statistics LW 41 16 31 47 22 RW 37 11 16 27 12 LW/RW 40 18 8 26 23 RW 41 9 17 26 20 D 37 5 20 25 25 C/D 41 4 19 23 10 C/LW 39 11 10 21 61 C 41 11 6 17 14 D 31 1 16 17 10 C 23 7 9 16 18 F 40 7 8 15 21 D 38 4 10 14 12 C/LW 34 3 11 14 8 D 35 0 14 14 14 LW 34 6 4 10 12 D 36 1 8 9 12 F 30 5 3 8 0 C 36 5 2 7 33 LW 26 2 4 6 31 D 26 1 3 4 14 F 5 1 0 1 0 F 20 1 0 1 6 G 8 0 1 1 0 D 11 0 1 1 0 G 35 0 1 1 0 G 2 0 0 0 0 D 10 0 0 0 8 D 17 0 0 0 21 Bench - - - - - 14 Total 129 222 351 421
Goaltending statistics 35 2060 20 14 0 92 819 5 .899 2.68 8 379 3 3 1 20 132 0 .868 3.16 2 13 0 0 0 1 2 0 .667 4.44 Empty Net - 20 - - - 6 - - - - Total 41 2473 23 17 1 119 953 5 .889 2.89
Rankings
PollWeekPre1234567891011121314151617181920212223 24 25 26 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR1918-16 USA TodayNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR USCHO did not release a poll in Week 25.
Awards and honors Blake Christensen AHCA East Second Team All-American Blake Christensen Atlantic Hockey Regular season Scoring Trophy Eric Lang Atlantic Hockey Coach of the Year Zackarias Skog Atlantic Hockey Most Valuable Player in Tournament Blake Christensen Atlantic Hockey First Team Brennan Kapcheck Blake Christensen Atlantic Hockey All-Tournament Team Hugo Reinhardt Jānis Jaks Ryan Polin Zackarias Skog
References