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 Celebrini Wins 2024 Hobey Baker Award

Macklin Celebrini (Boston University) is the 2024 winner of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the top player in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey.

Celebrini, 17, from North Vancouver, B.C., led the Terriers in scoring this season with 32 goals and 32 assists for 64 points in 38 outings, although BU's 2023-24 campaign ended in Thursday's 2-1 overtime loss to Denver in an NCAA Frozen Four semifinal in St. Paul, Minn. Celebrini was previously named the 2024 Hockey East Rookie of the Year and the Hockey East Player of the Year, and was also tabbed as a First Team All-America selection. He also earned the Tim Taylor Award as national rookie of the year.

Celebrini is the fourth BU Terrier to win the Hobey Baker Award, and the first since Jack Eichel in 2015. He is also the second straight freshman to garner the award, joining 2023 winner Adam Fantilli (Michigan), and just the fourth freshman overall. He is also the youngest-ever recipient of the Hobey Baker Award. Celebrini is also widely considered to be the likely first overall choice in this year's NHL Entry Draft, which will be held in late June in the Las Vegas area.

Three more major college hockey annual awards were announced on Friday. The Mike Richter Award for best goaltender went to Kyle McClellan (Wisconsin), while Dylan Lugris (Penn State) earned the Hockey Humanitarian Award and Luke Robinson (Air Force) garnered the Derek Hines Unsung Hero Award.

More NCAA Coaching Changes for 2021-22

More coaching changes have occurred recently as the 2021-22 NCAA hockey season draws nearer.

Andy Murray has stepped down at Western Michigan after 10 seasons, and has been succeeded by associate coach and Broncos alumnus Pat Ferschweiler.

Mike Levine (Utica) is now the associate head coach at Northeastern, which has also hired former NHL goaltender Mike Condon (Princeton) as assistant coach.

Jason Fortier has been named an assistant coach at Maine, while Daniel Paille, a forward on the Boston Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup championship squad, has been elevated from volunteer to assistant at Canisius.

Lastly, former Air Force forward Chad Demers has been named director of hockey at his alma mater.

Air Force Emerges on First Day of 2018 NCAA Tournament

The first day of the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship is in the books.

At the West Regional in Sioux Falls, S.D., 16th-seeded Air Force pulled off another national tournament shocker by besting top-seeded St. Cloud State, 4-1. It’s only the second time ever in Division I men’s hockey that the 16th seed defeated the No. 1 seed in the nationals. In the other West semifinal, Minnesota-Duluth edged Minnesota State, 3-2, in overtime, and will meet Air Force in the regional final on Saturday (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

At the East Regional in Bridgeport, Conn., Notre Dame outlasted upstart Michigan Tech, 4-3, in overtime, while Providence made a first-period power play goal stand up in a 1-0 victory over Clarkson. The Fighting Irish and the Friars will face off Saturday (6 p.m. ET, ESPNU) for the right to go to the Frozen Four.

The other two regionals get underway on Saturday. At the Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass., Boston University will face Cornell (1 p.m. ET, ESPNews) before Michigan encounters Northeastern (4:30 p.m. ET, ESPNews). At the Midwest Regional in Allentown, Pa., Princeton will meet Ohio State (3:30 p.m. ESPNU) before defending national champion Denver takes on host school Penn State (7 p.m., ESPN3).

Minnesota-Duluth, Harvard Headed to Frozen Four

Half the NCAA Men’s Division I Hockey Frozen Four picture is set following six games on Saturday, with the other two spots to be determined on Sunday.

Minnesota-Duluth became the first team to punch its ticket to Chicago in two weeks’ time with a 3-2 overtime victory over Boston University in the West Regional final at in Fargo, N.D. Adam Johnson scored on the power play just 1:57 into the extra session for the top-seeded Bulldogs, who also got 22 stops from Hunter Miska and will proceed to their first Frozen Four since 2011.  

UMD’s opponent in Illinois will be Harvard, which advanced to its first Frozen Four since 1994 by outlasting Air Force, 3-2, in the East Regional final in Providence. Tyler Moy’s second-period power-play goal gave Harvard a 3-0 lead and stood up as the game-winner, as the Falcons responded shortly afterwards with two goals in 15 seconds. Merrick Madsen finished with 27 saves for the Crimson, including a point-blank save on a rebound shot by Matt Serratore with 14 seconds remaining in regulation to preserve the win.

Top overall seed Denver raced out to a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes and never looked back in besting Michigan Tech, 5-2, in a Midwest Regional semifinal in Cincinnati. Colin Staub scored twice for the Pioneers, who connected twice on the power play and also got 16 stops from Tanner Jaillet.

In the late game in Cincinnati, Penn State and Union traded field goals until the Nittany Lions got the touchdown, scoring seven straight times over the last two periods of play en route to a 10-3 victory in their first-ever NCAA Tournament contest. Nate Sucese led Penn State with two goals and two assists, while Andrew Sturtz, Chase Berger and Kris Myllari posted three points apiece. It was the most goals scored by one team in an NCAA Tournament game in 27 years, since Lake Superior State beat Alaska Anchorage by the same score in 1990.

Ryan Lohnin scored two goals and Ryan Collins had two assists as UMass Lowell blanked Cornell, 5-0, in the early Northeast Regional semifinal in Manchester, N.H. Tyler Wall had 19 saves for the River Hawks, who advanced to the regional final on Sunday to take on fellow Hockey East school Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish scored three unanswered goals, the last two by Anders Bjork, to oust top seed Minnesota, 3-2, marking the 12th year in a row that that an NCAA Division I men's hockey No. 1 regional seed was eliminated in the regional round.

UMass Lowell and Notre Dame will face off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday at the SNHU Arena, while Denver will face Penn State in the Midwest Regional final at 6 p.m. ET at U.S. Bank Arena. Both games will be televised live on ESPNU. The winners of those two regionals will meet in Chicago on April 6.

BU, Harvard, Air Force, UMD Advance in NCAA Hockey Regionals

The first day of the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Championship is in the books—and will be tough to top the rest of the tournament.

At the West Regional in Fargo, Boston University edged de facto host and defending national champion North Dakota, 4-3, in double overtime after an apparent UND goal in the first extra session was disallowed, due to an offside play on Ludvig Hoff. The Fighting Hawks had fought back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period with goals just three minutes apart by Hoff and Christian Wolanin to force sudden death, and outshot BU by a 59-29 margin on the afternoon. Charlie McAvoy connected for the game-winner 11:48 into the second OT off a cross-ice feed from Clayton Keller for BU, while goaltender Jake Oettinger finished with 56 saves for the Terriers.

In the nightcap in North Dakota, top-seeded Minnesota-Duluth took a 2-0 lead on Ohio State, which had a supposed goal of its own called back in the opening 20 minutes. The Buckeyes responded with two third-period goals by defensemen Matt Joyaux and Gordi Myer to tie matters, but it was NCHC champion UMD winning in sudden death on a slapshot by blueliner Willie Raskob at 11:58 of the additional session. Hunter Miksa made 40 saves for the Bulldogs, who will now face BU at 6 p.m. ET (ESPNU) on Saturday at Scheels Arena in the West Regional final.

At the East Regional in Providence, ECAC champion and top-seeded Harvard won its first NCAA Tournament game in 23 years, getting two goals from Tyler Moy and 41 saves from Merrick Madsen in topping Providence, 3-0. The Crimson also won its 15th straight game dating back to January.

In the second game, Atlantic Hockey champion Air Force outlasted Western Michigan, 5-4, with Kyle Haak scoring twice and Shane Starrett stopping 22 shots for the Falcons, who led by a 4-1 score early in the third period. Griffen Molino and Sheldon Dries scored 23 seconds apart to pull the Broncos within one, but Tyler Ledford’s goal just over a minute-and-a-half later stood up as the game-winner for AFA. The Falcons will now meet the Crimson on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. (ESPNU) at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in the East Regional final.

The Northeast Regional at SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H. gets underway with Cornell encountering UMass Lowell at noon ET (ESPN3.com) on Saturday, capped by Minnesota skating against Notre Dame at 3:30 p.m. ET (ESPNU). The Midwest Regional at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati faces off with Denver meeting Michigan Tech at 1 p.m. ET (ESPNews), followed by Union (NY) taking on Penn State at 4:30 p.m. ET (ESPN3.com).

The Northeast and Midwest regional finals will be contested on Sunday, at 3:30 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. ET, respectively, both showing on ESPNU. The four regional winners will advance to the NCAA Frozen Four on April 6 at the United Center in Chicago.

Sun Devils Top Air Force for First Ranked Win

NCAA Division I independent Arizona State earned its first-ever victory over a ranked opponent with Sunday's 5-2 triumph over No. 18 Air Force at Gila River Arena.

The Sun Devils, playing in their second varsity season and in their first full NCAA Division I campaign, earned their first win of the season to earn a series split. The visiting Falcons, who earlier this fall won the Icebreaker Classic in Denver with victories over Boston College and Ohio State, had edged ASU, 4-3, on Friday night.

Tyler Busch scored the game-winning goal on a second period power play on Sunday for the Sun Devils, who also got a goal and two assists apiece from from Dylan Hollman and Boston University transfer Robbie Baillargeon, plus 24 saves from Joey Daccord. Sunday's win also marked the first time ASU had beaten a Division I opponent in Arizona, as last year's Division I wins over Alaska (Fairbanks) and Lake Superior State all came on the road or at a neutral site.

ASU (1-3-0 overall) will now visit Northeastern this weekend before hosting Harvard to close out the month.

Corbett Takes Charge with UAH Chargers

Mike Corbett is the new head hockey coach at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

The long time Air Force Academy associate/assistant  coach, who also interviewed for the Alaska Anchorage job that eventually went to  Matt Thomas, took over at UAH earlier this week from Kurt Kleinendorst, who resigned after one year in Huntsville to pursue professional coaching opportunities.

A Green Bay native, Corbett earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Denver where he played four seasons on the Pioneer blueline (1993-1997) and was a two-time all-conference academic team choice. He then spent four seasons as a junior head coach in the American West Hockey League before returning to the college ranks at AFA in 2003.

Corbett, 41, served as the primary defensive coach during his 10-year tenure at Air Force, and also helped the Falcons to five Atlantic Hockey tournament championships and five NCAA tournament appearances. Those national berths included the East Region final in 2009, where AFA came within an overtime goal of going to the Frozen Four.

UAH begins the 2013-14 campaign, its first in the revamped Western Collegiate Hockey Association, on Oct. 11-12 at Northeastern.

Eagles to Have Hands Full with Falcons

Considering last year's shocking 8-4 defeat to Colorado College in the first round of the NCAA West Regional in St. Louis, don't expect top-seeded Boston College to be looking past first-round foe Air Force on Saturday afternoon at the NCAA Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass.

The Eagles (29-10-1) are on a 15-game wining streak that has included claiming both the Beanpot and two Hockey East titles; but everybody, though, is even as the 2012 NCAA Tournament kicks off this weekend. The opposing Falcons (21-10-7), winners of Atlantic Hockey, and a former Division I independent, have now posted six straight winning seasons. AFA is 1-4 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, but could just as easily have won each of those contests.

Air Force beat Michigan, 2-0, in 2009, and then were just a double-overtime goal against Vermont away from the Frozen Four. They've also come up one goal short in NCAA overtime setbacks to Miami (2008) and Yale (2011), and also fell to Minnesota by a single goal in regulation after jumping out a 3-0 lead in 2007.

Junior forward Kyle De Laurell leads the Falcons this season with 15 goals and 38 points, while senior defenseman Tim Kirby is third with 12-16–28 points and is also a Hobey Baker Award finalist. Senior goaltender Stephen Caple has posted a 13-5-5 record this year with a 2.16 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage, while sophomore netminder Jason Torf (8-4-2, 1.72, .928) backstopped the Falcons to a 4-0 win in the Atlantic Hockey title game over RIT and has recorded five shutouts in all.

BC leads the all-time series with Air Force, 5-0, with the two schools having last faced off in an 8-2 Eagle win in Minnesota in 2007. Following last season's early NCAA exit, though, the Eagles' earliest in the NCAAs since falling to Alaska Anchorage in the first round in 1991, don't expect BC to take Air Force lightly.

The DCU Center in Worcester has been good to the Eagles, who have posted an 8-1 record there in NCAA Tournament play, and have used the venue as a springboard to their national championships in 2001, 2008 and 2010. BC had two tough games in Worcester two years ago, though, edging Alaska Fairbanks, 3-1, before outscoring Yale, 9-7, the next night to move on to the Frozen Four in Detroit.

They'll need a similar effort on Saturday to give themselves a shot at doing so again in 2012. The reward for topping Air Force will be a second-round meeting on Sunday with either conference foe Maine, whom BC just beat for the Hockey East playoff title, or defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth, for the right to go to the Frozen Four in Tampa in April.

2012 Conference Champions Crowned

The automatic bids for the 2012 NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament were awarded on Saturday to the respective conference championship winners:

Atlantic Hockey (Rochester, NY): Air Force 4, RIT 0
Central Collegiate Hockey Association (Detroit): Western Michigan 3, Michigan 2
Eastern College Athletic Conference (Atlantic City, NJ): Union 3, Harvard 1
Hockey East Association (Boston): Boston College 4, Maine 1
Western Collegiate Hockey Association (St. Paul, MN): North Dakota 4, Denver 0

Both Boston College and North Dakota won their respective league tournaments for the third straight season, with BC becoming the first school to win three consecutive Hockey East playoff championships. Western Michigan claimed its first CCHA Tournament crown since 1986, after finishing runner-up a year ago. The Broncos are now headed to their second straight NCAA Tournament, as are Union and Air Force.

Also expected to garner one of the other 11 bids to the NCAA Tournament, according to the Pairwise Rankings, are Michigan, Miami (Ohio), Ferris State, Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota, Boston University, Maine, Denver, Massachusetts-Lowell, Cornell and Michigan State.

Conference Championships on the Line on Saturday

The final opportunity for several schools to gain access to the 2012 NCAA Division I Tournament will come down to Saturday night, when the championship games of the five major men's ice hockey leagues will take place.

Atlantic Hockey's past two champions will collide at Blue Cross Arena Rochester tomorrow when Air Force faces RIT. The AFA Falcons, who ousted Mercyhurst by a 5-2 score on Friday, went to the NCAAs last year, while the Tigers, who edged Niagara on Friday in overtime, made it all the way to the 2010 Frozen Four in Detroit.

Bowling Green's Cinderella run through the Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs came to a close tonight in Detroit, with a 3-2 double OT loss to Michigan. The Wolverines will face Western Michigan in Saturday's title tilt, after the Broncos dumped Miami, 6-2, in the other semifinal. The Red Hawks will face BGSU in this year's consolation game.

Harvard shocked Cornell, 6-1, in the Eastern College Athletic Conference's late semifinal tonight at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The Crimson will now line up tomorrow against league regular-season champion Union, which dispatched Colgate by a 6-2 count. Cornell and Colgate will meet in the ECAC consolation contest.

Hockey East saw top-ranked Boston College outlast upstart Providence, 4-2, in the first semifinal at TD Garden in Beantown tonight, while No. 11 Maine came back from two one-goal deficits to defeat No. 5 Boston University, 5-3. The Eagles and Black Bears last met in the HE conference championship contest in 2010, with BC winning in overtime.

Top-seeded Minnesota built a 3-0 lead over North Dakota in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association semifinals at the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul tonight, only to see the Fighting Sioux score six unanswered goals to earn a 6-3 victory and a berth in Saturday's title game against Denver. The Pioneers had earlier slipped past defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth, 4-3, in two overtimes.

The winners in Saturday's five championship games will receive automatic berths to the NCAA Tournament. Schools that are likely already in the big dance, according to the latest Pairwise Rankings, include BC, Michigan, Union, North Dakota, Ferris State, Maine, Minnesota-Duluth, Denver, Miami and BU, and Minnesota. Air Force, RIT and Harvard can only advance to the NCAAs by winning their respective conference championship games and gaining their league's automatic berth.

The NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be shown on Sunday on ESPNU at noon EDT.