Frank Serratore to Retire at Air Force

Another Serratore brother will be hanging up his whistle at the end of the 2026-27 NCAA campaign.

Frank Serratore (Bemidji State), who has guided the Air Force Academy for the past 29 years and led the Falcons to seven NCAA tournament berths, has announced he will retire at the end of the current season. His younger brother, Tom Serratore, just announced his season-end retirement at Bemidji State last month.

Frank Serratore has led Air Force to a 490-473-106 overall mark in his tenure in Colorado Springs, including tonight's 4-1 defeat against Omaha. His accolades with the Falcons included seven 20-win seasons, seven Atlantic Hockey playoff titles/seven automatic NCAA tournament berths ,and two Atlantic Hockey regular-season championships since taking over in 1997-98. Factoring in his four years at the helm of the University of Denver from 1990 to 1994, Serratore's overall collegiate head coaching record stands at 539-565-115. 

A native of Coleraine, Minn., Serratore, 69, played two years and 46 games as a goaltender at Western Michigan before transferring home to Bemidji State for two NCAA Division III seasons. Prior to taking the head coaching reins at DU, he served as a GM/coach in the USHL with Austin, Rochester, and Omaha, and two years as an assistant at the University of North Dakota. After leaving Denver, he spent three seasons in pro coaching/hockey operations with the IHL's Minnesota/Manitoba Moose before moving on to Air Force, where his 2008-09 team came within a double overtime goal of advancing to the NCAA Division I Frozen Four.

BU's Nieto Retires from NHL

Matt Nieto has called it a career. The Long Beach, Cal. native has formally retired from the NHL after 12 seasons, after not playing last year due to injury.

Nieto, 33, was drafted 47th overall by the San Jose Sharks in 2011 following his freshman season at BU, the first Californian ever to be selected by the Sharks. A product of the U.S. National Team Development Program in Michigan, he went on to skate in 705 career NHL regular-season outings at forward from 2013 to 2025 with San Jose, Colorado, and Pittsburgh, including two separate stints each with the Penguins and Avalanche. He collected 87 goals and 119 assists for 206 points in that span, and also posted eight goals and 21 points in 62 Stanley Cup Playoff contests. He also recorded 18 points in 28 career AHL appearances.

Nieto played at BU from 2010 to 2013, registering 44-58—102 points in 115 career games with the Terriers. He also helped them 2012 NCAA tournament and the 2013 Hockey East championship game, the latter the final game coached by legendary BU mentor Jack Parker. He also won gold twice with the U.S. at the IIHF World U-18 Championship (2009, 2010).

ASU Players Request Coaches Go on Leave

Several Arizona State hockey players recently sent a letter to their university president, requesting that the Sun Devils' coaching staff put on administrative leave following the August incident with sophomore defenseman Matthew Mayich that has left him in a coma.

Mayich, 21, a Toronto native and a 2023 St. Louis Blues draft choice who played last year for Clarkson University, collapsed following an outdoor workout in Tempe, Ariz. on Aug. 20 that was led by a former military officer, with members of the ASU coaching staff supposedly present. A former four-year major junior player with Ottawa (OHL), he remains in a neurological unit in a coma, with his attorney having noted that Mayich is not expected to recover in any meaningful fashion. ASU police have been conducting their own investigation into the matter, but no findings have yet been released.

ASU head coach Greg Powers, who has led the program since its ACHA club days and its elevation to the NCAA Division I level in 2015, declined to answer questions regarding the incident or the training session at last week's National Collegiate Hockey Conference media day. The Sun Devils, who joined the NCHC in 2024, are slated to open their 2025-26 season this weekend with two games at NCAA Division I independent Lindenwood.

ADDENDUM: Powers has been placed on administrative leave for at least this weekend.

2027 NCAA Regional Going to Hartford

The 2027 NCAA Men's Hockey Bridgeport (Conn.) Regional is moving to Hartford.

Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, formerly known as Webster Bank Arena, is undergoing renovations and will not be available for the regional next March. It will instead be transferred to the PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, home of the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack and the sometimes home of UConn men's hockey. Sacred Heart University will still serve as the regional host. 

Total Mortgage Arena lost its sole hockey tenant earlier this year when the AHL's Bridgeport Islanders moved to Ontario to become the Hamilton Hammers.

BC's Kevin Hayes Retires From Hockey

Kevin Hayes (Boston College) has called it a career.

The Dorchester, Mass. native has retired as an active player after going scoreless in five games this fall with Kazan Ak-Bars (KHL) in Kazan, Russia.

Originally drafted 24th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, Hayes went on to play in 805 career NHL regular-season games with the New York Rangers, Winnipeg Jets, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins. A 6-foot-5 center/left wing, he tallied 185 goals and 260 assists for 445 points in all, while also collecting 8-18—26 points over 56 Stanley Cup Playoff contests.

Hayes, 34, skated in prep school with Noble and Greenough in his native Massachusetts and then played four years at Boston College, registering 44-88—132 points in 142 outings with the Eagles. As a senior, he recorded career highs of 27-38—65 points in 40 appearances while playing on a line with Bill Arnold and the late Johnny Gaudreau, guiding BC to the 2014 NCAA Frozen Four just two years after helping the Eagles to a national championship.

The younger brother of the late Jimmy Hayes, who also played for Nobles and BC and in the NHL, Hayes put up his top-scoring NHL campaign in 2022-23 with Philadelphia, notching 18-36—54 points in 81 contests. He scored a career-high 25 goals with the Rangers in 2017-18, one of two 20-goal seasons in his NHL tenure, and also appeared in three IIHF World Championships for the United States (2014, 2017, 2024). 

Serratore to Retire at Bemidji State in 2027

Tom Serratore (Bemidji State) will step down as head coach of his alma mater following the 2026-27 season, when he will retire after more than 40 years of coaching, all in his home state.

Serratore has guided Bemidji to a 416-397-108 record over 25 seasons. all at the NCAA Division I level. In that span he has recorded eight campaigns of 20 or more wins, along with seven regular-season championships and three league tournament titles split amongst BSU's time in the CHA, WCHA and CCHA. He has also led the Beavers to five NCAA tournament appearances, including the 2009 Frozen Four.

A native of Coleraine, Minn., Serratore played two years at center at Division II Mankato State before transferring to BSU, where he played two more years at the Division III level with the Beavers and finished his college career with a combined 63 goals and 78 assists for 141 points. Following graduation, he began his coaching career as an assistant at Brainerd High School, before becoming head coach at Henry Sibley High School for two seasons. 

Serratore moved on to the college ranks in 1993-94 as an assistant at St. Cloud State, where he spent six seasons before returning to BSU as an assistant in 1999-00 as the Beavers moved to the Division I level. He then took the reins as head coach in 2001-02, where he has remained ever since. 

25 Years After 9/11: Remembering Mark Bavis

Twenty years since Sept. 11 has become twenty-five. Recirculating this piece I wrote years ago in remembrance of my friend, Mark Bavis, a former Boston University forward, NAHL assistant coach and NHL scout whom I only knew for much too short a time. Two years ago I got to visit the Mark Bavis Arena in Rockland, Mass. that was named after him, just over 20 miles from his hometown of Roslindale. He would be 56 now. Rest in peace, Mark.