2025 American International vs Army - Men's Hockey

Army Head Coach Brian Riley Prepares For Final Regular-Season Home Game

Army Head Coach Brian Riley Prepares For Final Regular-Season Home Game

Brian Riley will coach his final regular-season games this weekend as Army's long-time bench boss is retiring at the end of the 2024-25 season

Feb 19, 2025 by Jordan McAlpine
Army Head Coach Brian Riley Prepares For Final Regular-Season Home Game

The end is rapidly approaching, both on the AHA regular season and Brian Riley’s time behind the Army bench.

Riley, 65, announced in August that the 2024-25 campaign would be his last, and he’s enjoyed quite the tenure at West Point.

He spent seven seasons working as an assistant (1989-96) before returning to the school in 1999. He spent another five seasons as an assistant and was named the program’s 16th head coach for the 2004-05 season.

Riley’s also continued a family legacy that dates back to 1951. His father, Jack, led the program from 1951-86 and his brother, Rob, did so from 1986-2004. The three have a combined 75 consecutive years leading Army hockey – which will come to an end next fall.

Riley currently owns a 255-375-94 all-time record over his 21 seasons and his 255 wins rank 20th among active Division I coaches. He led the Black Knights to their lone AHA regular-season championship (2007-08), as Army went 17-8-3 in conference play that year.

He’s also been named the Atlantic Hockey Coach of the Year four times and watched 21 of his players earn all-conference honors. Another is very likely on the way too in sophomore defenseman Mac Gadowsky, who could very well win the league’s Defenseman and/or Player of the Year awards.

Riley’s current squad is 13-16-2, 13-9-2 and sits fifth in the AHA standings with 42 points, seven ahead of sixth-place Caniscius and just three behind fourth-place Niagara.

The Black Knights have a home-and-home against AIC this weekend to close out the regular season, and Saturday’s contest could be Riley’s final game at Tate Rink. Army is guaranteed to finish no lower than fifth in the AHA standings and could potentially earn home ice in the playoffs, although that’s yet to be determined. The top four seeds host in the quarterfinals.

Both of Army’s games against AIC can be streamed right here on FloHockey. Friday’s game is set for a 7 p.m. EST faceoff, followed by a 5 p.m. puck drop on Saturday.

Here are a few other storylines to follow this weekend around the conference.

Men’s Hockey 

  • Holy Cross enters this weekend with 53 points and sits atop the AHA standings, and the Crusaders are unbeaten over their last 16. However, Sacred Heart is just three points behind and there’s only an eight-point difference between second and fifth place.
  • Sacred Heart earned a 3-2 win at AIC Tuesday night. John Jaworski and Felix Trudeau each had a goal and an assist and Ajeet Gundarah made 36 saves in the win.
  • Atlantic Hockey announced its weekly awards on Monday as Holy Cross sophomore Jack Stockfish (Forward), Army sophomore Mac Gadowsky (Defenseman), RIT’s Ethan David (Goaltender), and Air Force freshman Sam Stitz (Rookie) took home the respective honors.
  • Gadowsky saw his 11-game point streak come to an end last Friday at Air Force. However, he responded with three points (1-2-3) in the series finale. Gadowsky has 24 points over his past 13 games dating back to Jan. 3.
  • The AHA playoffs begin on March 1 with three single-game matchups. The best-of-three quarterfinals follow the following weekend (March 7-9) and the semifinals run March 14-16. This year’s AHA Championship Game will be March 22.

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