More ice time. And some encouraging words from his coach.

Those two factors appear to be the biggest difference between the Andre Gill who struggled to keep his spot in the lineup last season, and the one who led the Richmond Renegades in goals this year while finishing second in the Southern Professional Hockey League in the same category.

The 23-year-old wing had 33 goals in the regular season and would like to ring up a few more in the playoffs, which start tonight in Fayetteville, N.C., against the FireAntz. Game 2 is tomorrow (7:35 p.m.) in Richmond.

Gill's scoring really took off after center Danny White left for Europe on Dec. 30. Gill had spent most of the season on White's line, the top trio for coach Brian Goudie, but had only seven goals in 21 games.

"Whitey was the shooter, the go-to guy," Gill said. "He deserved it. He was putting up points. I was missing a lot of chances, but I was getting them. I was working a lot harder, and so Gouds was giving me the ice time. I knew it would come eventually."

Somebody had to take up the slack for White, who was leading the club in scoring when he departed.

"Gouds had a little meeting with me and said, 'You're going to have to step up and prove that you can play without Whitey; prove that you can do it yourself,'" Gill recalled.

And so he has. Goudie gave Gill an assistant captain's role, and the 6-0 190-pounder produced 26 goals in the last 31 games en route to second-team all-SPHL honors.

Gill's centerman now is Trevor Karasiewicz, who was acquired in a trade with Huntsville shortly after White left. The other wing is Brett Needham, who provides a physical presence that opens up the ice.

"Kras is a pure passer," Gill said. "He finds me all the time. Needs controls the puck well along the wall and is a good passer as well. My linemates have really helped me so much."

The native of Botwood, Newfoundland, gets along much better with Goudie than he did with last year's coach, John Brophy, who didn't think Gill was physical enough or worked as hard as he should when he had 19 goals in 54 games.

"I don't know how many times he was a healthy scratch last year," Goudie said. "In the playoffs, [Brophy] told him to take his stuff off after the first period in one game. You've got to know your players and who can take criticism."

Gill grew tired of Brophy's constant badgering.

"Brophy was a very old school coach," Gill said. "The old school game was playing with a lot of hitting, crashing and banging. I've never really been that type of player.

"I have tons of respect for Broph. He's a great guy. He still roots for me. When he was here [last Saturday], he came and talked to me and told me he was glad I was having a good year. He could always see something in me. Maybe that's why I came back this year with a little more desire, a little more incentive, to prove that I could do it."

Gill isn't ready for the season to end yet.

"We've got 3 feet of snow back in New Brunswick [where he lives now]," he said. "I want to stay here for a while, where you can keep playing hockey and do a little bit more golfing, too."
Contact John Packett at (804) 649-6313 or jpackett@timesdispatch.com.