The 2024–25 Canisius Golden Griffins men's ice hockey season was the 45th season of play for the program, the 27th at the Division I level, and the 1st in Atlantic Hockey America. The Golden Griffins represented Canisius College, played their home games at the LECOM Harborcenter and were coached by Trevor Large in his 8th season.
Season As did most other teams in Atlantic Hockey America, Canisius had a poor start to their season. The Golden Griffins ended up losing all eight of their non-conference games, leaving the team with only one real path to the NCAA tournament; winning the conference championship. Despite a bad stretch in December, Canisius played much better against their contemporaries and were in the top half of the standings to end the first half of their schedule.
When the season started back up after Christmas, the club continued rack up wins in conference play and were sitting in a good position at the end of January. All of that changed at the beginning February when the team lost six consecutive games (three in overtime) and tumbled down the standings. During the skid, the defense collapsed and allowed 39 shots per game. Petter Wickström Stumer did well to stop as many shots as he did but the results were not forthcoming. The team managed to find enough offense to win two of its final three games and earn a 6th-place finish but the Griffs were forced to begin their postseason run in the first round of the AHA tournament.
Ben Bonisteel, who had played in just one game since December, got the starting job against Mercyhurst but it likely wouldn't have mattered who was in goal. The Lakers were the lowest-ranked team in the nation and could only muster 16 shots on goal for the entire match, less than half of what Chanisius was able to produce. Though the offense only found the back of the net twice, it was more than enough to send the Golden Griffins into the quarterfinals. The following week, Canisius was completely held in check by Bentley's netminder and the team was unable to score in either of their two games. Bonisteel game the club a chance to win in the second game by stopping all but one of the shots he faced but the Griffs' inability to score sealed their fate.
Departures Powell Connor Defenseman Graduation (signed with Reading Royals) Brenden Datema Defenseman Graduation (signed with Atlanta Gladiators) David Fessenden Goaltender Graduation (signed with Adirondack Thunder) Randy Hernández Forward Graduation (signed with Fort Wayne Komets) Alexander Houston Goaltender Left program (retired) Max Kouznetsov Forward Graduation (signed with Reading Royals) Hudson Lambert Defenseman Graduation (signed with Fayetteville Marksmen) Griffin Loughran Forward Graduation (signed with Savannah Ghost Pirates) Jack Lyons Defenseman Graduation (signed with HDD Jesenice) David Melaragni Defenseman Graduation (retired) Erik Urbank Forward Graduation (signed with Pensacola Ice Flyers)
Recruiting Ben Bonisteel Goaltender 21 Fenwick, ON Alec Cicero Forward 23 Williamsville, NY; graduate transfer from Holy Cross Mikey Colella Forward 25 Turnersville, NJ; graduate transfer from Northern Michigan Ryan Gillespie Forward 21 Toronto, ON Cole Kodsi Forward 24 Boca Raton, FL; graduate transfer from Union Luke Marshall Defenseman 20 Saskatoon, SK Carter Patterson Defenseman 20 Burlington, ON Dominic Payne Defenseman 19 North Vancouver, BC Hunter Price Defenseman 20 Calgary, AB Kash Rasmussen Forward 23 Cochrane, AB; transfer from Michigan Tech Petter Wickström Stumer Goaltender 20 Stockholm, SWE
Roster As of August 7, 2024.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
Scoring statistics RW 37 8 22 30 10 F 37 11 12 23 24 F 34 8 9 17 33 F 37 8 9 17 23 F 33 10 5 15 12 RW 30 8 7 15 8 RW 33 7 8 15 6 D 37 6 8 14 14 D 34 1 12 13 16 LW 31 4 8 12 8 F 37 4 8 12 6 D 28 1 10 11 12 F 35 4 4 8 2 F 14 2 6 8 6 F 24 2 4 6 0 C 22 3 2 5 6 D 15 1 4 5 10 D 28 1 4 5 31 LW/RW 33 3 1 4 23 F 16 2 1 3 6 F 22 1 2 3 6 D 34 2 0 2 24 D 23 1 1 2 6 LW 9 0 2 2 4 G 20 0 1 1 0 RW 1 0 0 0 0 F 1 0 0 0 17 D 4 0 0 0 0 G 11 0 0 0 0 G 15 0 0 0 0 F 16 0 0 0 4 Total 98 150 248 331
Goaltending statistics 20 899:37 7 7 0 37 387 1 .913 2.47 12 522:33 3 6 0 27 226 1 .893 3.10 15 783:01 2 10 2 46 431 0 .904 3.52 Empty Net - 31:45 - - - 10 - - - - Total 37 2236:56 12 23 2 120 1044 2 .897 3.22
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 Matteo Giampa All-Atlantic Hockey America Second Team Dominic Payne Atlantic Hockey America All-Rookie Team
References