The Ontario Tech Ridgebacks men's ice hockey team is an active ice hockey program representing the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks athletic department of the Ontario Tech University. The program is a member of Ontario University Athletics in the East division, a conference under the oversight of U Sports. The Ridgebacks play at the Campus Ice Centre in Oshawa, Ontario.
The Ontario Tech Ridgeback men's ice hockey program began with head coach Marlin Muylaert; the first head coach of the program hired for the inaugural season. Muylaert ended his seventh season behind the bench early and was let go midway through the 2013–14 campaign. The assistant coach at the time, Justin Caruana, was given the interim head coach tag and completed the season with the rest of Muylaert's coaching staff, composed of Rob Whistle, David Brown, Ian Young, Matt Reed, and strength and conditioning coach Mark Fitzgerald.
The current head coach is Curtis Hodgins. In his inaugural season (2015–16) with the Ridgebacks, the team set a new season high in wins and points, earned the team's first ever playoff round victory, and received the team's first ever vote for the USports Top 10 ranking. Following the success of '15-16, the Ridgebacks of 2016–17 achieved CIS National Ranking for the first time in program history, earning their highest ranking to date of #4 on November 9, 2016. The Ridgebacks continued to make the playoffs in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, losing in the first round on each occasion. Hodgins would lead the team to their second ever playoff series win in 2022, losing to the eventual national champion UQTR Patriotes in round two. The Ridgebacks returned to the playoffs for a tenth consecutive season in 2022.
History
The University of Ontario Institute of Technology was founded in 2002 by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a way to facilitate the influx of college-bound students in 2003.
While the school joined Ontario University Athletics in 2006, the ice hockey team did not begin play until a year later. The team did not see much success under their first head coach, Marlin Muylaert, the former coach of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, but he did shepherd the club to its first postseason appearances and non-losing season. The Ridgebacks finally posted a winning season upon the arrival of Curtis Hodgins in October of 2015. Ontario Tech notched two 20-win campaigns and reached the second round of the conference tournament twice under Hodgins, however, the regular season hasn't been kind to them in 2020s.
Season-by-season results Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, SOL = Shootout Losses, Pts = Points U Sports Champion U Sports SemifinalistConference regular season championsConference Division ChampionsConference Playoff Champions SeasonConferenceRegular SeasonConference Tournament ResultsNational Tournament Results Conference OverallGPWLTOTLSOLPts*FinishGPWLT% 2007–08OUA28619–211517th348233 2008–09OUA28716–411916th348215 2009–10OUA281115–022415th3713222 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 1–2 (Western Ontario) 2010–11OUA281212–2228T–12th3716165 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 1–2 (Wilfrid Laurier) 2011–12OUA28621–101318th339231 2012–13OUA281116–0123T–16th3711251 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 0–2 (Western Ontario) 2013–14OUA28816–3120T–16th36 †9 †23 †4 † † Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 0–2 (Quebec–Trois-Rivières) 2014–15OUA271015–1021T–16th3312192 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 0–2 (Carleton) 2015–16OUA28188–1138T–4th40 ‡23 ‡14 ‡3 ‡ Won Division Quarterfinal series, 2–1 (Queen's)Lost Division Semifinal series, 0–2 (Quebec–Trois-Rivières) 2016–17OUA281611–103310th3821143 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 0–2 (Concordia) 2017–18OUA28159–31349th3517144 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 0–2 (Concordia) 2018–19OUA28149–41337th3416135 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 0–2 (McGill) 2019–20OUA281312–3029T–11th3617163 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 1–2 (Ottawa) 2020–21 Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic2021–22OUA1788–01T–10th2511140 Won Division Quarterfinal, 6–4 (Concordia)Lost Division Semifinal, 3–6 (Quebec–Trois-Rivières) 2022–23OUA261310–302910th3416180 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 0–2 (Carleton) 2023–24OUA281410–3129T–9th3515164 Lost Division Quarterfinal series, 0–2 (Ottawa) Totals GP W L T/SOL %ChampionshipsRegular Season 526 216 265 45 Conference Post-season 32 6 26 0 U Sports Postseason 0 0 0 0 Regular Season and Postseason Record 558 222 291 45 † Justin Caruana served as interim head coach for the second half of the season.‡ Craig Fisher was forced to step down in October of 2015 due to lingering concussion symptoms.
Regular season and playoff results Season League Division GP W L OTL SOL Pts Pct GF GA Head coach Season result Playoff result 2016–17 CIS OUA East2816 11 0 1330.58988 83 Curtis Hodgins 7th Division, 10th League 1st Round Exit 2015–16 CIS OUA East 28 18 8 1 1 38 0.643 94 93 Craig Fisher/Curtis Hodgins 4th Division, 4th League 2nd Round Exit 2014–15 CIS OUA East 26 10 15 1 0 21 0.385 73 106 Craig Fisher 7th Division, 13th League 1st Round Exit 2013–14 CIS OUA East 28 8 16 4 0 20 0.286 64 110 Marlin Muylaert/Justin Caruana 8th Division, 17th League 1st Round Exit 2012–13 CIS OUA West 28 11 16 1 0 23 0.393 92 112 Marlin Muylaert 8th Division, 16th League 1st Round Exit 2011–12 CIS OUA West 28 6 21 1 0 13 0.214 86 138 Marlin Muylaert 9th Division, 18th League Did Not Make 2010–11 CIS OUA West 28 12 12 4 0 28 0.429 82 100 Marlin Muylaert 7th Division, 12th League 1st Round Exit 2009–10 CIS OUA West 28 11 15 2 0 24 0.393 90 119 Marlin Muylaert 8th Division, 15th League 1st Round Exit 2008–09 CIS OUA Mid West 28 7 16 5 0 19 0.250 83 130 Marlin Muylaert 4th Division, 16th League Did Not Make 2007–08 CIS OUA Mid West 28 6 19 3 0 15 0.214 60 128 Marlin Muylaert 4th Division, 17th League Did Not Make
Skaters all-time/career season stat leaders Player Name Goals Assists Points PTS/GP Josh Vatri F 104 56 49 105 1.01 Tony Rizzi F 138 49 54 103 0.75 Nathan Spaling F 112 30 61 91 0.81 Jesse Stoughton F 100 46 38 84 0.84 Luke VanMoerkerke F 133 32 51 83 0.62 Cameron Yuill F 135 22 56 78 0.58 James Woodcroft F 132 35 33 68 0.52 Mike Noyes D 112 20 47 67 0.60 Brendan Wise F 127 35 29 64 0.50 Kyle Wetering F 97 27 34 61 0.63 Kevin George F 105 24 30 54 0.51 Derrick Bagshaw F 74 26 25 51 0.69 Scott Baker F 78 20 31 51 0.65 Jake Logan D 119 5 45 50 0.42 Jason Shaw D 75 9 40 49 0.65 *Denotes Active Player
Goalies all-time/career season stat leaders Player Name Gamesplayed Minutesplayed Wins Win % Shutouts Saves Save % Tyson Teichmann* 15 815 15 0.538 1 39 370 2.87 0.905 Brendan O'Neil* 57 3285 33 0.579 3 174 1603 3.18 0.902 Colin Dzijacky 39 1930 9 0.231 2 118 1011 3.67 0.895 Jason Guy 67 3595 21 0.313 2 234 2003 3.91 0.895 Ben Csiernik 3 93 1 0.333 0 6 50 3.87 0.893 Josh Evans 8 154 0 0.00 0 12 97 4.68 0.890 Bryce O'Hagan 25 1419 10 0.400 1 88 702 3.72 0.889 Josh Sturrock 6 143 0 0.00 0 10 74 4.20 0.881 Jacob Rattie 18 721 3 0.167 0 56 410 4.66 0.880 Matt Mateja 43 2155 9 0.209 1 168 1211 4.68 0.878 Jesse Raymond 6 275 1 0.17 0 19 130 4.15 0.872 Jeff Dawson 44 1913 8 0.182 0 140 939 4.39 0.870 *Denotes Active Player
Skaters all-time/career playoff stat leaders Player Name Pos. Gamesplayed Goals Assists Points PTS/GP James Woodcroft F 9 3 9 12 1.33 Jesse Stoughton F 9 5 2 7 0.78 Jason Shaw D 5 2 4 6 1.20 Ryan Doucette* F 8 3 2 5 0.63 Danny Elser* F 8 2 3 5 0.63 Mitch Bennett* F/D 7 2 3 5 0.71 Ben Blasko* F 8 1 3 4 0.50 Cam Yuill F 14 2 2 4 0.29 Mike Robinson* F 10 2 2 4 0.40 Tyler Mayea* D 8 0 3 4 0.50 Colt Kennedy F 4 2 2 4 1.00 Connor Jarvis* F 7 1 2 3 1.00 Brendan Wise F 4 1 2 3 0.75 Brent Varty F 3 0 3 3 1.00 Jeremy Whelan F 3 2 1 3 1.00 *Denotes active player
Tennis Announced in 2016 after 10 completed seasons competing in Tennis, the University announced the elimination of the program.
Rowing The Ridgebacks rowing team was first established in 2005 and currently operate out of Durham Rowing Club in Port Perry, Ontario. Currently the team competes in Ontario level regattas during the months of September and October. The team fields both men's and women's rowing at both novice and varsity levels.
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