The 2025–26 Air Force Falcons men's ice hockey season was the 58th season of play for the program and the 2nd in Atlantic Hockey America. The Falcons represented the United States Air Force Academy in the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at the Cadet Ice Arena and were coached by Frank Serratore in his 29th season.
Season At the start of the season, Air Force had to figure out who would be taking over in net from the now-graduated Guy Blessing. Carter Clafton got his chance first and initially looked like he may have been a diamond in the rough. Holding perennial power Denver to a single goal in the season opener was more than the Falcons could have hoped for. However, the succeeding few weeks did not go well for the junior. While he was able to backstop the team to its first victory of the season, Clafton was lit up in a majority of his starts and gave Air Force little chance to win. By October 25, coach Serratore decided to make a change and gave Dominik Wasik his first start against RIT. While Wasik didn't put up a strong performance in the game, an injury forced him out of the match for just over 8 minutes. During thar stretch, Clafton faced 4 shots and allowed two to get past him. The very next game, Wasik seemed to grow more comfortable in goal and posted the four shutouts on the season. Wasik remained in control of the Falcons' cage for the remainder of the season with Clafton playing just 20 minutes in goal after October.
With the situation in net resolved, Air Force was able to get over its poor start and ran through its remaining slate in '25 without too much trouble. While there was no primary scoring threat for the team, the Falcons were able to get scoring from across its lineup with eleven plyers finishing in double-digits. The team averaged just less than 3 goals per game which, while not astounding, was a sufficient number to have the team competitive throughout the year. Team co-captain Chris Hedden led the club in scoring, finishing second in the nation in points per game by a defenseman.
Unfortunately for Air Force, the lack of a consistent scoring threat did end up causing problems in a few games and the team went through two poor stretches in the second half. With the conference standings skewed thanks to a few programs underperforming, Air Force managed to finishing in the bottom half of the AHA despite finishing three games above .500. Their unfortunate finish left the team faced with a road trip to Pittsburgh for the quarterfinals and a showdown with Robert Morris. The first game saw Air Force get off to a good start with goals in each of the first two periods. RMU was able to fight back in the third, scoring two goals in the final six minutes to tie the game and force overtime. It wasn't until the middle of the second extra period, on the Falcons' 51st shot of the match, that they were able to pull out a victory and take the series lead.
Robert Morris' netminder then took over for the remainder of the series and stymied the Falcons. The second game was taken by the Colonials 4–1 with the two teams playing fairly evenly for the night. The deciding match, however, was tilted heavily in the Falcons' favor with Air Force vastly outshooting the home team 62–17. Unfortunately, Wasik had a poor night in goal and allowed 4 shots to get behind him. While the Falcons were able to fight break through in the third, they were unable to claw back all the way to even and a pair of late markers sealed their fate.
Departures Guy Blessing Goaltender Graduation (retired) Cooper Boulanger Forward Transferred to club team James Callahan Defenseman Left program (retired) Clay Cosentino Forward Graduation (retired) Lucas Coon Forward Graduation (retired) Andrew DeCarlo Forward Graduation (retired) Mitchell Digby Defenseman Graduation (retired) Liam Hansson Forward/Defenseman Left program (retired) Sam Jacobs Forward Transferred to club team Jasper Lester Defenseman Graduation (retired) Austin Schwartz Forward Graduation (retired) Ethan Ullrick Forward Transferred to Tufts
Recruiting Calvin Beard Defenseman 19 Southborough, MA Cole Christian Forward 21 Duluth, MN Nate Farrell Defenseman 21 Wheaton, IL Oliver Genest Forward 21 Sanford, ME Simon Houge Defenseman 21 Woodbury, MN Dylan Krick Goaltender 20 West Chester, PA Cade Moxham Forward 21 Calgary, AB Hayden Nichol Forward 22 Rochester, NY Charles Panchisin Forward 20 Lincolnshire, IL Zane Spaniol Goaltender 20 Ham Lake, MN Aidan Willis Forward 20 Farmington, MN
Roster As of August 12, 2025.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
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Scoring statistics D 37 12 22 34 14 F 34 11 21 32 20 F 37 9 23 32 22 F 37 11 14 25 23 D 37 7 13 20 18 C 37 6 14 20 14 D 37 6 13 19 37 LW 28 7 9 16 32 F 37 7 9 16 10 D 35 5 11 16 14 F 34 3 7 10 20 D 35 3 5 8 10 F 24 5 2 7 8 F 33 3 4 7 18 F 34 3 4 7 20 F 29 2 4 6 6 F 33 2 3 5 6 F 20 2 2 4 8 F 24 2 2 4 8 F 16 1 3 4 8 D 37 1 3 4 10 C/LW 4 0 1 1 0 G 7 0 1 1 0 D 13 0 1 1 0 G 34 0 1 1 0 G 1 0 0 0 0 D 1 0 0 0 0 D 4 0 0 0 0 Total 108 191 299 330
Goaltending statistics 34 1971:17 17 12 3 81 790 4 .907 2.47 9 259:57 1 3 1 16 135 0 .894 3.69 1 22:33 0 0 0 5 13 0 .722 13.30 Empty Net - 20:18 - - - 10 - - - - Total 37 2274:05 18 15 4 112 938 4 .885 2.96
Rankings
NOTE: USCHO did not relaease a week 12 poll NOTE: USA Hockey did not relaease a week 12 poll
References