The 2025–26 RIT Tigers men's ice hockey season was the 62nd season of play for the program, the 21st at the Division I level and the 2nd in Atlantic Hockey America. The Tigers represented the Rochester Institute of Technology in the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at the Gene Polisseni Center and were coached by Matt Thomas in his 1st season.
Season Matt Thomas began his tenure at RIT by having to replace a massive chunk of the team's offense. The Tigers lost the top four scorers from the previous season, who combined had accounted for exactly half of the goals scored in '25. Fortunately, the new crop of players were able to quickly acclimate to Rochester and replace the lost firepower. Four freshmen (Caleb Elfering, Evan Konyen, Will Moore, Zach Wigle) and one transfer (Austin Brimmer) made up five of the team's top six goal scorers for the year and helped the club end with a slightly higher goals per game average. The biggest development for the Tigers was the massive improvement in the play of Jakub Krbeček. After a trying freshman campaign, Krbeček settled into his role as the starting goaltender and shaved more than 1.5 off of his goals against average. Coincidentally, this upgrade in goal also came with the defense allowing more than 150 fewer shots over the course of the season.
With the offense, defense and goaltending all seeing positive movement, the Tigers got off to a fast start. After dropping the first series of the season, RIT corrected its mistakes and reeled off nine consecutive victories, their longest streak since 2010. The extended stretch had the team receiving a small amount of national attention in mid-November. However, a dip in scoring led to a 4-game skid and the team was unable to recapture their early-season magic afterwards. Over the entire second half of their schedule, RIT could find no consistency and seemed to follow up every win or two win an equal number of defeats.
By the time the postseason rolled around, RIT was stuck in neutral and had slipped down to 5th in the conference standings. While they were able to earn a bye into the Quarterfinal round, they had to travel to face Holy Cross. A quirk of scheduling led to the Tigers facing four consecutive road games against the Crusaders and the second two went only marginally better than the first. After Wigle gave the team a lead early in the third thanks to a power play marker, it was then up to Krbeček to hold the fort. With just a single goal to their credit, the Tigers nearly were able to eke out a victory. However, with less than a minute to play and Holy Cross already on a power play, the Crusaders pulled their goaltender and managed to convert on a 2-skater edge to tie the game. RIT cranked up the pressure in overtime, but Holy Cross fired a one-timer home near the middle of the fourth period to take the match. The Crusaders nearly ran away with the rematch, scoring 4 goals in the second to take a commanding lead after forty minutes. However, Moore and Brimmer combined to score three times in the third, the final with about half a minute to play, and force overtime for a second night in a row. Despite their herculean efforts, the final result was the same and Holy Cross ended RIT's season on a shot from the high slot.
Departures Tanner Andrew Forward Graduation (signed with Norfolk Admirals) Nick Cafarelli Forward Graduation (signed with Reading Royals) Ethan David Goaltender Left program (retired) Tyler Fukakusa Forward Transferred to Northeastern Grady Hobbs Forward Graduation (signed with Erding Gladiators) Dimitri Mikrogiannakis Defenseman Graduation (signed with Rapaces de Gap) Evan Miller Forward Graduation (signed with Ratinger Ice Aliens) Kevin Marx Norén Forward Signed professional contract (Düsseldorfer EG) Doug Scott Defenseman Graduation (signed with Birmingham Bulls) Matthew Wilde Forward Transferred to Massachusetts
Recruiting Camden Bajzer Forward 21 Cleveland, OH Austin Brimmer Forward 23 Markham, ON; transfer from Long Island Alex Christopoulos Forward 22 Richmond Hill, ON; transfer from St. Francis Xavier Caleb Elfering Forward 21 Richland, WA Evan Konyen Forward 21 Newmarket, ON Collin MacKenzie Goaltender 20 Elora, ON Will Moore Forward 21 Westfield, IN Brock Reinhart Defenseman 21 Elora, ON Ben Roger Defenseman 22 Markham, ON; transfer from Saint Mary's; selected 49th overall 2021 Boris Skalos Forward 23 Clifton, NJ; transfer from Mercyhurst Zach Wigle Forward 21 Oakville, ON
Roster As of August 23, 2025.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
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Scoring statistics RW 36 10 15 25 16 C/LW 36 8 17 25 4 RW 35 12 12 24 33 RW 36 10 12 22 56 C 36 11 6 17 16 RW 36 8 7 15 10 RW 33 5 10 15 24 D 35 1 14 15 32 D 35 3 11 14 12 D 34 1 11 12 10 LW 26 7 2 9 0 C 33 4 4 8 14 D 17 2 6 8 12 D 31 2 5 7 18 F 23 2 4 6 4 F 19 1 4 5 8 C 26 3 1 4 10 F 28 2 2 4 8 D 28 1 3 4 12 D 34 0 4 4 35 LW 27 0 3 3 0 D 23 0 2 2 4 D 13 0 1 1 2 G 2 0 0 0 0 G 3 0 0 0 0 RW 5 0 0 0 0 G 33 0 0 0 4 Bench – – – – – 4 Total 93 156 249 348
Goaltending statistics 2 72:38 0 1 0 1 21 0 .955 0.83 33 1942:24 17 15 1 75 818 1 .916 2.32 3 153:46 0 1 0 10 44 0 .815 3.90 Empty Net - 21:16 - - - 10 - - - - Total 36 2190:04 17 17 2 96 883 1 .902 2.63
Rankings
Note: USCHO did not release a week 12 pollNote: USA Hockey did not release a week 12 poll
References