Army’s Defense Falters in 6-3 Defeat to Air Force

West Point, N.Y. — There was a lot of excitement in the air on the campus of the United States Military Academy with the arrival of the Air Force Falcons for rivalry weekend at West Point. That excitement turned to silence after 60 minutes, with the Falcons taking it to Army and thrashing the Black Knights 6-3 Friday night at Tate Rink.

Army was able to get goals from sophomore Jack Ivey on the power play and freshman Brock Jones and junior Barron Woodring at even strength, but it was the play in their own zone that let the Black Knights down.

“Yeah, I think our defense just didn’t have their stuff tonight,” said Army Head Coach Zach McKelvie. “They had a rough game, and we were turning pucks over, and we just weren’t committed to going north. As the game went on, they just kept coming at us with speed, and they were able to get a lot of good scoring chances out of it, and some of them turned into goals.”

Sophomore goaltender JJ Cataldo left everything out on the ice, making 33 saves on 39 shots, but the constant pressure on his net was too much for the Stuart, Florida native to overcome tonight.

The loss drops Army to 3-6-3 overall and 1-6-2 (6 points) in Atlantic Hockey play. In the other locker room, Air Force gets back to .500 with a record of 6-6-1 and improves to 3-4 (9 Points) early in AHA play.

Feeling Each Other Out in the First

The first 20 minutes of this game felt like a “feeling-out process” for each bench, with both teams trading time in each other’s zone, but not causing any danger to either goaltender.

With your typical Army, Air Force hockey game, both teams came out hitting in the first period. Junior defenseman Easton Zueger has been a physical presence this whole season for the Black Knights, and tonight was no different.

The 5’8 South Dakota native took his opportunity to leave his mark on a Falcons player with a hit just inside the Army blue line and took his opponent off his feet, which got a nice reaction from the corps in attendance.

Head coach Zach McKelvie was complimentary of Zueger and some of the other “shorter” guys on the team who were throwing their bodies around. “Yeah, I think that they just played tenacious; they were playing hard. You have to in this series, you have to play big, and those guys did.”

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Both Teams Find Scoring Touch in the Second Period

When the puck dropped for the second period, it was Air Force that started to tilt the ice in their favor, and they were the ones to break the ice just before the five-minute mark.

Falcons senior Holt Oilphant got a step on the Army defenseman and drove hard into the blue paint, and while his shot didn’t go in, it set up a juicy rebound for sophomore Will Dawson to pounce on inside the left circle, giving Air Force a 1-0 lead.

It wouldn’t take long for Army to answer Air Force’s goal with one of their own. On the first power play of the game for either team, the Black Knights looked fluid and were moving the puck with a purpose. That movement was able to open up space in the Falcons’ “diamond” setup.

Sophomore Ben Ivey, circling the blue line, passed the puck over to Nils Forselius at the right circle, who then fed a gorgeous pass through the slot over to Jack Ivey in the left dot for a one-timer that beat Air Force junior goaltender shortside, under his blocker, to cap off Army’s beautiful passing play and tie the game at 1-1.

The Black Knights would find themselves with a grade A opportunity to take the lead just a few minutes later. Junior Vincent Salice sprung himself loose behind the Air Force defense and was joined by senior captain Barron Woodring for 2-on-1. Salice kept the puck all the way down the ice and was able to get a clean shot on net, but Wasik was able to stand tall in his net and make the save.

That miss would haunt Army the rest of the game. Following that failed odd-man rush for the Black Knights, Air Force would score on their first power play of the game from sophomore Anthony Yu and again with 40 seconds left in the 2nd period from junior Nick Remissong to give the Falcons a 3-1 lead.

Army Claws One Back Before the Intermission

Looking like they were heading into the second intermission down two, Army would find the gas to garner one more high-danger chance in the period.

Sophomore Sam Groebner’s outlet pass from below his goal line found a streaking Lucas Kanta, who was able to power his way through the two Air Force defenders for a partial breakaway.

Driving hard to the net, Kanta was tripped up into Air Force goaltender Dominik Wasik, clearing the path for freshman Brock Jones to bury the rebound into the open net and send the teams into the intermission with the Falcons leading by just one goal.

Army Hockey News:

• Service Academy Showdown: Army Hockey Hosts Air Force in Crucial Weekend Series
• Army Hockey Suffers First Weekend Sweep of Season Following 4-1 Loss to Niagara
• Army Gets Offense Going Late, but Falls to Niagara 6-4 to Open Series

More of the Same in the Third Period

The Falcons came out of the locker room just like they did in the second period and took it to Army. The Falcons had their legs and were able to beat JJ Cataldo twice in a span of less than a minute to extend their lead to 5-2.

For a majority of the night, Army left Cataldo out to dry, and that was evident on the fifth goal when Sam Groebner turned the puck over behind his own net, leading directly to a goal against.

“We just have to be simpler with pucks. We had wingers out of the zone because we had the puck on our stick, and then we tried to make a really finesse play behind our goal line, and that’s not the time you want to do a finesse play. You want to do finesse plays down by their goal line. Our defense has to be a lot more committed to just going north, and they take a lot of chances off the rush, so if you go north, I think we can catch them on some odd-man rushes.”

Army and Air Force would then trade goals to push the score to 6-3, with Barron Woodring scoring for the Black Knights and Sam Stitz for the Falcons.

Army’s “Disappointing” Late 5-on-3 Power Play

As the time started to bleed off the clock, Army was handed a full 5-on-3 power play, the Black Knights’ last chance to salvage something from the game. One goal gets them back into the game. Instead, Army lacked speed, movement, and creativity, and Air Force killed off both penalties.

Zach McKelvie was bold post-game and said his team lacked “urgency” late in the game.

“Uh, disappointing, you know? Like, 6-3, you get a goal there, you get an opportunity to get your goalie out, and we had zero urgency, just zero urgency. I was disappointed, right, because as a coach, you try to communicate that to the guys, but at the end of the day, they got to go over the boards, and they got to have some ownership of it, and they didn’t have any ownership of that five-on-three. There was no urgency at all.”

Wrapping up Friday Night

Following the two power plays, Tate Rink was silenced, and as the clock struck zero, the small number of Air Force fans that made the trip to West Point were able to celebrate the Falcons’ 6-3 victory in game one this weekend.

Army (3-6-3, 1-5-2 AHA) is back in action tomorrow night to close out the series against rivals Air Force (6-6-1, 3-4 AHA). Puck drop is set for 7:00 pm at Tate Rink.

Game Summary

Final Score: Army 3, Air Force 6
Date: November 21st, 2025
Venue: Tate Rink, West Point, N.Y
Attendance: 2,432
Officials: Referee – Andrew Bethmann & Matthew Fuller; Linesman – Cameron Carlson & Joshua Cleary

Scoring Summary

First Period

• No Goals Scored

Second Period

• 4:29 — Air Force: Will Dawson (Holt Oilphant & Nick Sajevic) EV — 1-0 Air Force
• 6:23 — Army: Jack Ivey (Nils Forselius & Ben Ivey) PP — 1-1
• 13:35 — Air Force: Anthony Yu (Aidan Willis & Will Staring) PP — 2-1 Air Force
• 19:20 — Air Force: Nick Remissiong (Brendan Gibbons & Chris Hedden) EV — 3-1 Air Force
• 19:44 — Army: Brock Jones (Lucas Kanta & Sam Groebner) EV — 3-2 Air Force

Third Period

• 2:16 — Air Force: Holt Oilphant (Jake Peterson & Anthony Yu) EV — 4-1 Air Force
• 3:35 — Air Force: Chris Hedden (Nick Remissiong & Brendan Gibbons) EV — 5-1 Air Force
• 4:21 — Army: Barron Woodring (Sean Vlasich & Jude Brower) EV — 5-3 Air Force
• 10:19 — Air Force: Sam Stitz (Nick Sajevic & Chris Hedden) EV — 6-3 Air Force

Team Stats

Goaltending

Air Force Falcons

• Dominik Wasik (W): 21 Saves on 24 shots (.875 SV%)

Army Black Knights

• JJ Cataldo (L): 33 Saves on 39 Shots (.846 SV%)

Goal Scorers For Army

• Jack Ivey (3rd Goal of Season)
• Brock Jones (1st Goal)
• Barron Woodring (3rd Goal)

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