Now in his seventh season as the Head Ice Hockey Coach at Wentworth Institute of Technology, R.J. Tolan has guided the Leopards to an impressive 100-52-11 (.647) record over his first six campaigns while continuing to be a perennial contender within the ECAC Northeast and competing at a national level.

The 2011-12 season saw the Leopards finish 21-7-1, finish first in the ECAC Northeast for the second time in three seasons, and capture the program’s first ECAC Northeast Championship since 2004 with a 1-0, overtime win over Curry. Tolan guided Wentworth to the Institute’s first-ever win in the NCAA Tournament when the Black & Gold won at Plymouth State, 3-1, before bowing out to top-ranked Norwich, 3-0, in the quarterfinal round, snapping a school record 10-game win streak. The win over Plymouth was not only a milestone for the school, but a personal one for Tolan as it was his 100th career triumph.

After serving as an assistant coach for the Leopards during the 2005-06 season, he was named the program’s fifth hockey coach in May of 2006 and in his first season directed Wentworth to a 16-9-3 record and a berth in the ECAC Northeast title game, where his squad was defeated by UMass Dartmouth, 4-3.

The 2007-08 edition of the Leopards played a demanding non-league schedule, which attributed to an 11-14-1 record, but were 10-5-1 in conference play. Wentworth was upset by Suffolk, 3-2, in overtime, in the ECAC Northeast Quarterfinals but bounced back the following season to finish 18-8-1 and reach the ECAC Northeast title game for the second time in three seasons. The Black & Gold were edged by Nichols, 4-3, in the title game.

Wentworth cracked the 20-win plateau for the first time in seven seasons during the 2009-10 campaign, finishing 20-5-1, and earning the top seed in the ECAC Tournament. After a wild, 10-7 win over Salve Regina in the quarterfinals, the Leopards saw their season come to a close with a 5-3 loss to Johnson & Wales in the semifinals. In addition to being nationally ranked for most of the season half of the season, Wentworth led all of Division III in power-play efficiency with a percentage of .326.

While the final record of the 2010-11 team was 14-9-4, five of the nine losses were by a single goal, including dropping a heartbreaking, 2-1, overtime decision at Curry in Wentworth’s third ECAC Northeast finals appearance in Tolan’s first five seasons behind the bench. Prior to reaching the championship game, the Leopards defeated Johnson & Wales, 4-3, in overtime in the semifinals in a game that saw the Wildcats erase a 3-1 deficit and score the game-tying goal with 3:42 left in regulation.

Tolan’s 100 wins rank him second on the program’s all-time list and he has amassed an impressive 66-18-6 (.767) record in ECAC Northeast games, while posting a 10-5 record in the ECAC Northeast Tournament. Four of his five league tournament losses have been by a single goal, with two coming in overtime. In his first six seasons he has coached 23 ECAC Northeast All-Conference players, including Skylur Jameson ’12, who was the league’s rookie of the year in 2009 and player of the year in 2010, and Tolan himself has twice been honored by the league as its coach of the year (2007, 2012).

Prior to arriving at Wentworth in the fall of 2005, Tolan coached collegiately as an assistant at Northeastern (2004-05) and Bentley (2003-04) and served as an assistant coach with the Boston Bulldogs Junior Hockey Club during the 2002-03 season.

Tolan played in 56 career games at UMass Lowell under head coaches Tim Whitehead (1998-2001) and Blaise MacDonald (2001-02).  During his junior season, he scored three points (two goals, one assist) in 31 games. A neck injury limited his playing time to 14 games as a senior, a season in which the River Hawks finished 22-13-3 and advanced to the semifinals of the HOCKEY EAST Tournament.  He graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science.

A native of Waltham, Mass., Tolan, who also serves as the department’s Strength & Conditioning Coach, resides in Beverly, Mass., with his wife Kayli.

Tolan's Tally