2024–25 Army Black Knights men's ice hockey season

The 2024–25 Army Black Knights men's ice hockey season was the 122nd season of play for the program, the 115th at the Division I level, and the 1st in Atlantic Hockey America. The Black Knights represented the United States Military Academy, played their home games at the Tate Rink and were coached by Brian Riley in his 21st season.

In the summer of 2024, Brian Riley announced that this would be his final season as head coach.^[1] At the same time, associate head coach Zach McKelvie was tabbed as Riley's replacement.

The season itself began poorly for Army. The offense was able to find some consistency over the first month but senior netminder Evan Szary could not keep the puck out of the Knights' cage. J. J. Cataldo began to see some time in goal by the end of October and the results began to improve for the team. By mid-November, the Black Knights were hovering around .500 and appeared to be an improving team. Unfortunately, that's when the season took a sharp decline. Army lost nine consecutive games around the winter break largely due to their inability to score. While the goaltending from both Cataldo and Szary wasn't stellar, there was little the netminders could do when the Black Knights scored 3 goals over a 6-game stretch. The nadir was an embarrassing, 2–8 loss to American International that came despite Army firing 51 shots on goal.^[2]

The shellacking from AIC appeared to wake the team up because the very next weekend, Army looked like a completely different team against Mercyhurst. Though the Lakers were the worst team all season in college hockey, their two biggest defeats for the season came from the hands of the Black Knights. After hammering Mercyhurst 9–1 in the first game, Army eviscerated the Lakers 13–1. It was the most goals Army had scored in a game since 1997 and the largest margin of victory in 58 years.^[3] Virtually every player on Army recorded a point during the weekend, including third string netminder Jacob Biron, but the hero of the hour was Mac Gadowsky, who finished with 7 points (as did Nils Forselius and Nik Hong). The rather stunning results completely changed the complexion of Army's season. The Knights continued their inspired play for the remainder of their schedule. The team went 9–2–2 over the final seven weeks and nearly managed to pull back to .500. However, since most of their losses were against non-conference opponents, the Knights managed to finish 5th in the conference standings and earn the final bye into the quarterfinals.

Army opened its postseason at Niagara and outworked the Purple Eagles for most of the night. Unfortunately, the Knights' offense was a little rusty after a week off and failed to convert on eight power play opportunities. Despite the failure of its special teams, Army was able to overcome two 1-goal deficits and force overtime. It took another 34 minutes of game time for the winning goal to be scored and, on Army's ninth man-advantage of the night, Gadowsky scored to give the Black Knights a lead in the series.^[4] The rematch saw Niagara take a 3-goal lead early in the third thanks to two special teams goals. Despite this, Gadowsky did his best to even the score by contributing on each of Army's three goals in the game but the comeback ultimately ran out of time. The deciding game was a little bit tighter in terms of play with Army twice able to get a lead. Two goals in the third from the Eagles had the score even after 60 minutes and overtime was called for once more. Less than 3 minutes into the extra session, Niagara took its second penalty of the game and Barron Woodring made them pay with the winning goal just 21 seconds later.^[5]

With their first series win in four years, Army's reward was a date with league champion Holy Cross. The first game saw both goaltenders turn aside a barrage of shots with Gadowsky again keeping Army in the game. Twice he had a hand in tying goals for the Knights and forced the match to head into a fourth period once again. This time, however, it was the home team that was able to get the winning tally and put the Knights behind the 8-ball. The loss appeared to sap the strength out of the team and in the next game the Cinderella run for the Knights ended with their season turning back into a pumpkin. Holy Cross scored the first four goals of the game and essentially put the match out of reach for Army. The team battled hard but going 0 for 4 on the power play left the Knights with little ability to erase the massive deficit. The loss ended Army's season but it did not obscure the team's stellar performance over the final two and a half months.

As of July 29, 2024.^[6]

^[8]

Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12 or 26.^[9]
Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.