It took A.J. (Andrew Joseph) Bucchino a while, but he seems to have finally found a hockey home.

Bucchino made five other stops this season before setting up shop in net for the Richmond Renegades, where he has provided some solid goaltending to help the Southern Professional Hockey League team climb out of the cellar and into playoff contention.

The 23-year-old netminder started the year in training camp with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (American Hockey League), farm team of the New York Islanders, and traveled back and forth across the country from the Augusta (Ga.) Lynx (East Coast Hockey League), to the Utah Grizzlies (ECHL), to the Jacksonville Barracudas (SPHL), to the Charlotte Checkers (ECHL), back to Jacksonville and then to Richmond in a trade.

"I've been around," Bucchino said the other day after practice at the Coliseum.

The 5-10 185-pounder had had a brief fling with Augusta last season after two years at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

"Last year, when I signed my contract, I was on Cloud Nine," he said. "I was like, 'Oh man, this is going to be great.' But you have to keep everything in perspective, and you really don't get too high or too low.

"At times, I was very bitter. But you have to look past that and realize that I'm not an NHL player right now, and I've got to battle through the trenches before I get to the top."

Bucchino has gotten off to an excellent start at this level, going 4-2-2 with a 2.82 goals-against average since arriving in Richmond, along with defenseman Bret Norris in a trade with Jacksonville in mid-December for defenseman Craig Geerlinks.

Counting his stay in Jacksonville, Bucchino is 6-2-3 and leads the SPHL with a 2.58 GAA and a save percentage of .930.

"I knew his dad [Joe] in the East Coast League," Richmond coach Brian Goudie said of the former general manager of Pensacola (ECHL). "Jack Capuano [Goudie's former coach] had him in camp in Bridgeport, and he shut out Hartford for two periods [in an exhibition]. He told me the kid could stop the puck."

Bucchino has been splitting the duties here with Ryan Senft and is expected to get his next start against Twin City tonight (7:35) at the Coliseum. Senft missed some time with an injury and has played better since Bucchino's arrival.

"Senft knows when he gets the chance to go in the net and if he doesn't perform, then A.J. is going to be right there and ready to go," Goudie said. "It works both ways, and that's a healthy challenge for both of them."

Bucchino gave up one goal to Twin City in his debut then lost a pair of shootouts. The native of Bow, N.H., struggled after that for a while before regaining his form.

"When me and Norris got traded and were driving here, we were thinking of all the positives of getting traded because neither one of us had been traded before," Bucchino said. "Once I got here, I think maybe because of the adjustment, I seemed to fight the puck a little bit. But battling through practices and games, I feel more comfortable now.

"This is the longest time I've been in one spot . . . longer than a month actually. That's always nice. I think we have a good team, a good guy to play for. It's a good hockey atmosphere, so I'm happy."