The 2024–25 Colorado College Tigers men's ice hockey season was the 85th season of play for the program and the 12th in the NCHC. The Tigers represented Colorado College in the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at the Ed Robson Arena and were coached by Kris Mayotte, in his 4th season.
Season With Colorado College having improved for three consecutive seasons under Kris Mayotte, the Tigers were picked by many to make the NCAA tournament. Early on, the team looked to be on track to meet those prediction when they won their first eight games of the campaign. Kaidan Mbereko, the Tigers' starting netminder, looked every bit the All-American he had been in 2024. The offense was consistently finding the back of the net despite losing last year's leading scorer, Noah Laba, to a leg injury for a brief time.
CC was riding high, and they rose up to #8 in the national polls, however, their ranking was being held back by the weakness of their opponents. In mid-November, the Tigers would be able to remedy that situation when they went through a gauntlet of ranked teams. Unfortunately, Colorado College was not able to make it through unscathed. In the final four weeks before the winter break, CC won only two of their eight games and began to come back down to earth. Unlike the early part of the season, Mbereko found it difficult to keep the puck out of the net while the Tigers' offense struggled to score. Even with a 2-week layoff, the team's problems persisted and CC's run of poor performances continued throughout January. By the beginning of February, the team that had begun the season unblemished in eight games was now a .500 squad.
As the losses piled up, Colorado College tumbled down the rankings and eventually fell out of the polls entirely, though only for a short while. The scoring did pick up a bit by the end of January and enabled the team to earn splits with ranked clubs for three consecutive weeks, however, the inconsistency of the forwards did not repair the Tiger's dashed playoff hopes. By playing even hockey over the final seven weeks of the season, CC had no shot at a tournament appearance without winning the conference championship.
When their postseason began, CC did not have far to travel as they faced their long-time nemesis Denver in the quarterfinals. Mbereko weathered a barrage of chances from the Pioneers in the first two periods and, though the team was down entering the third, they were only a single shot away from tying the game. Ty Gallagher made good on a glorious 5-on-3 power play early in the period to even the count. With less than 4 minutes to play, Brady Cleveland netted his first of the year and the team held on to win the first match of the series. Unfortunately for CC, the team got into penalty trouble in the rematch and surrendered 3 man-advantage goals to Denver to even the series. The final game was even worse for the Tigers as not only did the Pios score 3 more on the power play but CC also gave up a short-handed tally as well as another goal on a delayed penalty. The abysmal special teams play by Colorado College ended any chance the Tigers had at extending their season, bringing a very disappointing year to a close.
Departures Nicklas Andrews Defenseman Graduate transfer to Michigan State Jake Begley Goaltender Graduation (retired) Nikolai Charchenko Defenseman Transferred to MSOE Ray Christy Forward Graduate transfer to St. Thomas Antonio Fernandez Defenseman Transferred to Colgate Chase Foley Defenseman Graduate transfer to St. Thomas Connor Mayer Defenseman Graduation (signed with Utah Grizzlies) Jack Millar Defenseman Graduation (signed with Ontario Reign) Noah Serdachny Forward Transferred to American International Evan Werner Forward Transferred to Michigan Logan Will Forward Graduate transfer to Providence
Recruiting Nick Baer Defenseman 20 Minnetonka, MN Owen Beckner Forward 19 Victoria, BC; selected 204th overall in 2023 Philippe Blais-Savoie Defenseman 19 San Jose, CA Jordan Brisson Forward 20 Manhattan Beach, CA Brady Cleveland Defenseman 19 Wausau, WI; transfer from Wisconsin; selected 47th overall in 2023 Ty Gallagher Defenseman 21 Clarkston, MI; transfer from Boston University; selected 217th overall in 2021 Ryan Koering Defenseman 19 Eden Prairie, MN Gavin Lindberg Forward 20 Fergus Falls, MN Chase McLane Forward 24 Trenton, MI; graduate transfer from Penn State; selected 209th overall in 2020 Carsen Musser Goaltender 19 Fairmont, MN; selected 166th overall in 2023 Fisher Scott Defenseman 19 Carbondale, CO; selected 208th overall in 2024 Charlie Strobel Forward 23 Stillwater, MN; transfer from Minnesota
Roster As of August 9, 2024.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
Scoring statistics C 37 7 20 27 4 C 29 10 16 26 25 RW 37 9 17 26 12 D 37 6 20 26 12 RW 36 8 13 21 12 RW 37 7 14 21 24 C/LW 36 9 10 19 32 F 34 10 8 18 18 C 37 9 8 17 50 D 30 4 11 15 10 C 37 6 6 12 28 C/RW 33 5 5 10 26 F 37 5 5 10 8 D 34 3 7 10 12 C 27 0 7 7 8 F 23 4 2 6 0 D 32 0 6 6 24 F 21 1 4 5 8 D 30 1 2 3 2 D 37 1 2 3 39 F 21 1 0 1 36 C 6 0 1 1 6 D 14 0 1 1 21 F 1 0 0 0 0 G 2 0 0 0 0 G 9 0 0 0 0 G 31 0 0 0 0 Bench – – – – – 18 Total 106 185 291 435
Goaltending statistics 4 10:10 0 0 0 0 5 0 1.000 0.00 31 1810:32 15 15 1 80 758 2 .905 2.65 11 396:08 3 3 0 26 188 0 .879 3.94 Empty Net - 23:51 - - - 7 - - - - Total 37 2240:41 18 18 1 113 951 2 .894 3.03
Rankings
PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.com111211988878810т8–8131819RV2019202020тRVRVNR–NR USA Hockey12121199888881111–8141919RVRVRVRVRVRVNRRVNRNRNR 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 Max Burkholder All-NCHC Second Team
Players drafted into the NHL
5 143 † Vancouver Canucks † incoming freshman
References