RIT men's hockey releases 2024-25 schedule

The RIT men's hockey team has released its schedule for the 2024-25 season, with a 35-game slate set to begin in early October.

The reigning Atlantic Hockey conference champions open Oct. 5 at Bowling Green, the first of four straight road dates to open the season. The Tigers' first home date is Saturday, Oct. 19, when RIT will host Bowling Green at Blue Cross Arena.

The Gene Polisseni Center will host 16 games this season, beginning with Colgate on Saturday, Oct. 25. The regular season schedule continues through Feb. 22 when RIT wraps up the season at home against Mercyhurst.

The Atlantic Hockey playoffs begin with the first round on March 1. Best-of-threes for the quarterfinals (March 8-10) and semifinals (March 15-17) will follow, and the postseason culminates with the winner-take-all championship game on March 22.

"The coming year promises to be another great season, including plenty of opportunities for our fans to come out and support us," head coach Wayne Wilson, who enters his 26th season, said in a press release. "We look forward to playing a strong slate of opponents as we look at defend our Atlantic Hockey championship and get back to the NCAA tournament for the second-straight year."

RIT's 2023-24 group will be a tough one to follow. The Tigers finished 27-11-2, which includes a victory over American International in the conference championship game to earn RIT a berth into the NCAA tournament. RIT's season ended the following game, however, when the Tigers faced top-seeded Boston University.

There could be significant roster turnover for RIT in 2024-25. Last year's group featured nine players who were either graduate students, fifth-year players or seniors. The Tigers also lost leading point-getter Carter Wilkie (16 goals, 25 assists in 40 games) and top goaltender Tommy Scarfone (25-9-2, 2.26 GAA, .925 SV%) to the transfer portal.