2017–18 American International Yellow Jackets men's ice hockey season

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==
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==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==
Poll 	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week 	Week	Week	Week	Week
Poll 	Pre 	1 	2 	3 	4 	5 	6 	7 	8 	9 	10 	11 	12 	13 	14 	15 	16 	17 	18 	19 	20 	21 	22 	23 	24 	25 (Final)	 	 	 	
USCHO.com	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	- 	NR 	 	 	 	
USA Today	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	 	 	 	
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 	Atlantic Hockey Rookie Team 	
==References==
2017-18
Category:2017–18 Atlantic Hockey season
Category:2017–18 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey by team