The 2024–25 American International Yellow Jackets men's ice hockey season was the 77th season of play for the program, the 27th at the Division I level and 1st in the Atlantic Hockey America conference. The Yellow Jackets represented American International College, played their home games at MassMutual Center and were coached by Eric Lang in his 9th season.

Season At the start of the season, seemingly the biggest issue the program had to figuring out who would be the team's starting goaltender. While neither Chase Clark nor Peyton Grainer seemed able to take hold of the reins through the first month of the season, the difficult schedule the team had to content with was at least partly to blame. AIC was able to win just twice in its first nine games but most of their opponents during that stretch would end the season as nationally ranked teams. Despite their poor record, the team had high hopes for their prospects in conference play but the program was able to receive some of the worst news imaginable.

In mid-November, American International College announced that it would be reclassifying its ice hockey team as a Division II program for the following year. The Yellow Jackets were a D-II school for most of their teams; however, the school had taken advantage of an NCAA rule that allowed them to promote one sport to a higher tier, similar to the RIT Tigers and Clarkson Golden Knights. AIC has had some of the lowest attendance numbers in college hockey, routinely drawing fewer than 500 people in a building that could seat more than 6,800. American International's primary conference, Northeast-10, is the only league that sponsors Division II ice hockey, so the immediate expectation is that the Yellow Jackets will join that conference as soon as possible.

The announcement was a gut-punch to the team who had to continue knowing that many players were spending their final months at the school. Unsurprisingly, the team had to fight through inconsistent play as they finished off the first half of its season, however, AIC ended up in a very unfortunate position at the beginning of December. After dropping the first game of the weekend to Holy Cross, the Yellow Jackets were forced to cancel the rematch when all three of the team's goaltenders were unable to compete due to injury. While the initial plan was to just have the game not played, eventually it was rescheduled for the end of the regular season. Fortunately, the team was set to go on the winter break immediately after the match so no other games were impacted.

Not much changed for the club when they began the second half. Both the offense and defense had good and bad moments but only occasionally were they able to align to provide the team with a win. Clark ended up commanding the bulk of the minutes in goal but still gave way to Grainer or Adam Manji from time to time. AIC played poorly to end the campaign but did earn just enough points in the standings to merit a home game in the first round of the conference playoff. However, as if to add insult to injury, the team was unable to use the MassMutual Center and were forced to borrow the Tate Rink from Army. The slight seemed to wake the team up and the Yellow Jackets fought hard in their final D-I postseason run. The team Clark starred in the neutral site match against RIT, making 31 saves and forced overtime. While the Tigers collected the first four shots in the extra session, team captain Casey McDonald extended the program's season with just his second goal of the year.

The reward for the victory was a quarterfinal showdown with Holy Cross, the regular season champion. AIC showed no fear against the Crusaders and built a 3–0 lead in the through the first two periods. Holy Cross managed to get two goals past Clark in the third but the Yellow Jackets were able to carry the day. The rematch began with CHC scoring twice on special teams before American International replied with two markers to tie the match. A goal by the home team late in the third proved to be the game-winner and evened the series at 1-all. In the rubber match, AIC had to come from behind on three separate occasions, using the power-play to their advantage twice. The final time, Lauri Sertti scored his first of the year with just 35 seconds left in regulation. At the time, Clark was on the bench to give the club a 6-on-4 opportunity. Despite the huge boost to the team's morale, they were unable to carry any momentum into overtime and the first shot eluded Clark. The loss ended the team's season as well as their time at the top level of college hockey.

Departures Alexandros Aslanidis Goaltender Graduate transfer to Lindenwood Brett Callahan Defenseman Graduation (retired) Grayson Dietrich Forward Transferred to Niagara Cole Hudson Goaltender Transferred to Brockport State Julius Janhonen Forward Graduation (signed with HPK) Logan Jenuwine Forward Graduation (retired) Brian Kramer Defenseman Graduate transfer to Western Michigan Darwin Lakoduk Forward Graduation (retired) Tomi Leppänen Defenseman Signed professional contract (Iisalmen Peli-Karhut) Austen Long Forward Graduation (signed with Fayetteville Marksmen) Dustin Manz Forward Graduation (signed with Wheeling Nailers) Akseli Pennanen Forward Signed professional contract (TUTO Hockey) Matthew Rickard Defenseman Graduate transfer to Alaska Jake Sacratini Forward Transferred to Plattsburgh State Casper Söderling Defenseman Transferred to Curry Nico Somerville Defenseman Graduation (signed with Wichita Thunder) Nils Wallström Goaltender Transferred to Merrimack Blake Wells Forward Graduation (signed with Utah Grizzlies)

Recruiting Brett Bamber Defenseman 23 St. Albert, AB; transfer from Alaska Anchorage Chase Clark Goaltender 22 Williamsville, NY; transfer from Sacred Heart; drafted 183rd overall in 2021 Blake Dangos Defenseman 22 St. Louis, MO; transfer from Sacred Heart Wilhelm Forsberg Forward 20 Sollentuna, SWE Tobias Bjercke Larsen Defenseman 20 Oslo, NOR Adam Manji Goaltender 21 New Westminster, BC Justin Mexico Forward 20 Madison Heights, MI David Posma Defenseman 21 Pomona, NY Tyler Procious Defenseman 21 Pittsford, NY Noah Serdachny Forward 21 Edmonton, AB; transfer from Colorado College Nikolai Tishkevich Forward 20 Minsk, BLR Nicky Wallace Defenseman 21 Atlantic Highlands, NJ; transfer from Quinnipiac Danny Weight Forward 23 Edmonton, AB; graduate transfer from Colorado College Tanner Willick Defenseman 20 Saskatoon, SK

Roster As of July 29, 2024.

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics C 38 14 10 24 6 C 30 11 9 20 10 F 37 10 10 20 10 LW 32 8 10 18 50 D 35 6 12 18 14 F 37 4 12 16 10 F 32 3 12 15 12 C/W 35 3 10 13 12 C 34 5 7 12 37 C 36 5 7 12 4 C 36 3 9 12 6 C 33 7 4 11 4 D 36 2 7 9 51 LW/RW 25 0 8 8 6 F 27 3 4 7 25 D 35 1 6 7 16 D 37 1 6 7 6 RW 20 1 5 6 6 D 32 1 5 6 8 LW 13 2 2 4 4 D 33 1 2 3 18 D 12 1 1 2 4 D 18 0 2 2 10 G 7 0 1 1 0 LW 8 0 1 1 2 G 25 0 1 1 5 G 1 0 0 0 0 F 1 0 0 0 0 D 1 0 0 0 0 D 1 0 0 0 0 F 5 0 0 0 0 D 7 0 0 0 1 G 12 0 0 0 0 Total 92 162 254 348

Goaltending statistics 1 1:41 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0.00 10 266:20 2 1 0 12 140 0 .921 2.70 25 1459:01 9 14 2 68 715 1 .913 2.80 14 545:01 2 8 0 29 241 1 .893 3.19 Empty Net - 29:28 - - - 7 - - - - Total 38 2301:31 13 23 2 116 1096 2 .903 2.73

Rankings

PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NR USA HockeyNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12 or 26.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.

Awards and honors Evan Stella All-Atlantic Hockey America Third Team

References