Worst Seasons in the Past 25 Years Part 5: American International

Welcome to the Worst Season in the Past 25 Years, a series in which r/CollegeHockey reviews the worst season for all 60 Division I teams over the summer to alleviate the crushing boredom known as the off-season and take a horrific tour down memory lane.

If you are interested in writing an entry for your team, please let me know via PM. I’ll be posting entries on weekdays at approximately at 6 pm Eastern time and will be going in alphabetical order. If an entry is not posted at that time, assume that “real life” has gotten in the way and that I am not able to post. If I am aware in advance that I will not post at 6 pm on a particular day, I will announce it in prior posts as a heads up.

And now.../r/CollegeHockey presents the American International Yellow Jackets! AIC has been a DI hockey school since they founded their program in 1948. For several years, they were an independent school before joining the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). They are currently members of Atlantic Hockey, joining in 2003, where they only have had two 10 win seasons since.

That said, here is the worst season for the Yellow Jackets...

2014-2015 Record: 4-7-25 (W-D-L); Atlantic Hockey: 4-7-17 (W-D-L; 10th/11th)

Wins: @Niagara (x2), @Army, Army

Ties: @Holy Cross, Robert Morris, @Canisius, Bentley, @RIT, Sacred Heart (x2)

Losses: @Union, @Holy Cross, Canisius (x2), @Massachusetts Amherst, @Michigan (x2), Robert Morris, @Dartmouth, @Canisius, Bentley, @Clarkson, Army, @RIT, @Robert Morris (x2), Air Force (x2), Mercyhurst (x2), @Air Force (x2), @Army, @Air Force (x2)*

*Atlantic Hockey tournament, first round

Biggest Beatdown: AIC 3 - Air Force 10

Head Coach: Gary Wright

This was Wright’s penultimate season at the helm of the Yellow Jackets. He has coached AIC since 1984-85, the longest I’ve seen for a head coach. Despite winning the least amount of conference games, the Yellow Jackets managed to avoid the wooden spoon because Niagara had more losses and less ties. Austin Orszulak lead the team in scoring, with 22; Johno Jay got the most assists, with 23. In goal, Alex Murray had a save percentage of .897 and a GAA of 4.01.

The Yellow Jackets’ season kicked off with a trip to Union, where the Dutchmen won 7-3. A short trip to Holy Cross followed; the best part was a tie. A home series against Canisius was fruitless but a trip to Western New York softened things up with two wins against Niagara. A non conference game against UMass Amherst ended in defeat as well as a trip to Michigan where the Wolverines were the Victors. The home series against Robert Morris had one tie. November finished off with a non con game against Dartmouth, who were grateful for the win.

December started with an away series to Canisius, where the Yellow Jackets got a tie. A home series against Bentley ended in the same fashion. AIC finished the calendar year with a trip to the North Country, where they played Clarkson and that damn bell whistle was heard four times.

The new year started with a quick home-and-home series with Army; AIC won the away game but lost the home one. A four match trip to RIT and Robert Morris had only one tie. A home series against Air Force never got off the ground. The following weekend, two ties with Sacred Heart were to be had.

February started with two home defeats to Mercyhurst, followed by a trip to Colorado for AIC’s away series with Air Force. The Falcons were in no loving mood, where they shipped 12 goals in 2 matches past AIC. Another quick home-and-home with Army had the same result as the previous one but this time AIC won the home match while losing the away one. The season ended in the AHA tournament, falling in two games away to familiar foes Air Force.

Wright was AIC coach for one more season before AIC hired Eric Lang for the 2016-17 season. Lang managed to get a record of 8-8-20 (W-D-L) for that season, which is not much different from the norm at American International. However, I hope that under Lang that AIC can improve and it is near impossible to judge him at this point in time.

For Week 2 of this series, we will look at the worst seasons in recent memory for the following schools: Arizona State, Army West Point, Bemidji State, Bentley and Boston College. Once again, if you are interested in doing the entry for your favorite school, shoot me a PM. Your school, name, and date will be added at the end of each post to serve as a reminder. So far, the following people have inquired about a spot:

School	Username	Tentative Date
Brown	u/kdb77	6/21
Cornell	u/ABigRedWallaby	6/29
LSSU	u/binkelman	7/10
UML	u/LantisEscudo	7/13
Penn State	u/saucysalesman	8/8
RPI	u/Nicholas1227	8/16
Union	u/azureamor	8/22
Vermont	u/LocksTheFox	8/23

Finally, a shoutout to u/saucysalesman who inspired the idea of this series for doing one for football over at r/cfb. Additionally, thanks to r/CollegeBasketball for the idea of the sub-par MS Paint logos for each school.