West Point, N.Y. — Last weekend in Erie, Pennsylvania, Army Hockey felt all the highs and lows of a Division I college hockey team. Tonight at Tate Rink was no different.
The Black Knights were almost let down by their power play tonight, going 0-4 with multiple extended man advantages. But it would be junior assistant captain Nik Hong to propel Army over Robert Morris University 3-2 in overtime and grab the extra point.
Army got regulation goals from senior Jude Brower and freshman Bill Batten, while sophomore goaltender JJ Cataldo made 31 saves on 33 shots to get this game to an extra frame. Hong’s goal with 56 clicks left on the clock was Army’s first overtime victory of the season.
The win improves Army to 9-10-5 on the season and 4-9-3 (16 points) in Atlantic Hockey play, while the Colonials see their record fall to 4-15-2 this season, with a conference record of 4-8-1 (16 Points).
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A Rare First Period Sighting at Tate
It hasn’t happened often this season, but it would be Army that struck first. Senior defenseman Jude Brower got a successful dump around the boards that junior captain Barron Woodring was able to get to. Woodring came out of the four-man pile with the puck stick handled around another Colonial and found the aforementioned Brower sneaking in from the blue line.
All alone on the left side of the offensive zone, Brower would wind up being one-on-one with Robert Morris goaltender Croix Kochendorfer, and he did not blink, snapping one past Kochendorfer to give Army a rare home lead in the first period.
“We’ve put a huge emphasis on the starts to our game and coming out with the lead, and we haven’t been great at that this year,” head coach Zach McKelvie said post-game. “It’s important. When we got that goal, I think it gave us a little life. But to be honest, like Robert Morris, for their first 40 minutes, they were winning a lot of 50-50 pucks. They were just a little harder.”
Brower’s goal was a rare feat for Army, as it opened the scoring for the Black Knights at Tate Rink for the first time since November 25th against Bentley. On the backend, Brower has been a pleasant surprise, leading the defensive core in scoring this season with 11 points (4 Goals & 7 Assists) in 23 games.
Zach McKelvie is just happy to see that Brower’s patience has started to pay off.
“Jude’s always been a really good player. He’s a great skater. He’s got some pretty good offensive instincts. This year, there was an opportunity, and he’s taken full advantage of it. With a couple of guys leaving, he saw an opening, and to his credit, he worked extremely hard this summer, and it’s been one of our best D all year.”
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The Physicality Picks Up in the Second
With conference play starting to ramp up, so has the physicality in these games, where every point matters down the stretch. In the first twenty, we say some hits and chirping here and there, but it was in the second where things started to boil over.
First, it was sophomore Adam Marshall throwing his body around. Standing just 5’10 and 180 pounds, you wouldn’t expect a guy like Marshall to put guys on the ice, but with Julian Beaumont looking to exit his own zone, Marshall pounced on his opportunity to provide a spark. Near where the bench meets the glass, Marshall threw Beaumont over the boards and into the Army bench.
That would help lead to a skirmish in front of the Robert Morris goaltender just a couple of minutes later, after an Army player slid into Croix Kochendorfer. Four players, including Marshall and freshman Bill Batten, would receive roughing penalties. Following that sequence, you could tell there was some animosity in the air at Tate Rink.
Defensive Breakdowns Hurt Army Again
Through 30 minutes of play, it seemed as if Army was trying to hold on to its one-goal lead instead of bringing the game to Robert Morris. That would eventually cost Army, with the Colonials tying the game 13:30 into the middle period.
Robert Morris ran a set play off the faceoff, with the right wing coming inside to pick the puck up and carrying it to the sideboards before throwing it towards the goal. As the bodies started to separate, Owen Nolan lost his man, and Julian Beaumont was able to poke the puck past JJ Cataldo for his first career goal.
Just over three minutes later, another breakdown in Army’s zone would give Robert Morris the lead. In their own zone, the Colonials just dumped the puck down the ice and let their wingers skate on to the puck. Freshman defensemen Liam Chapman fell as he was transitioning, and it helped spark a 2-on-one for the Colonials, but JJ Cataldo was able to make the save.
Robert Morris was able to keep possession in the Army zone, and the Black Knights were caught out of position. Braden Rourke threw the puck towards the front of the net again, and it popped into the air off freshman defensemen Liam Chapman’s skate and just happened to float right to Trent Wilson, who easily batted the puck over Cataldo and into the net to give Robert Morris a 2-1 lead.
It’s been a common theme this year from the Black Knights to give up multiple goals in a short span, and tonight, it put Army behind the eight ball in the blink of an eye.
Zach McKelvie didn’t like how his team was playing through 40 minutes, but he was even more frustrated by how Robert Morris scored their two goals, as the coaching staff had shown it multiple times in pre-scout video.
“Yeah, I think just our level of focus and commitment, it just wasn’t there. There are going to be games when you don’t have it, and we didn’t have it in the first two periods,” said McKelvie. “With both those goals, those were two exact goals that we talked about in pre-scout, and that’s when it gets frustrating because you know it’s coming—this face-off play, that over-under play where they just funnel it to the net. We knew that was coming. We watched that three times yesterday. And then the same thing with their second goal. They just punt it. They get on it. We didn’t do a great job tracking. And, you know, unlucky balance, but to their credit, you know, you make your bounces out there, and they were a lot hungrier on pucks.”
Can’t Capitalize on Late Two-Man Advantage
Coming into the weekend, the Black Knights owned the second-best power play in the conference, clicking at 21.8%. With just 1:34 left in the second period, Army would have an opportunity to rectify the situation with a five-on-three power play thanks to a cross-checking and too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty called on the Colonials twenty-one seconds apart.
On that two-man advantage, the Army had a couple of quality looks to tie this game up before heading into the locker room, but the puck either missed the net or Croix Kochendorfer was able to make a save. Robert Morris also did a remarkable job of blocking a handful of shots.
Army wouldn’t be able to score before the horn sounded, and the team seemed a bit frustrated heading off the ice. The power-play, apart from those couple of chances, just seemed too stagnant and didn’t force the three Colonials on the ice to chase them and open up passing lanes for more grade A or B chances on goal.
“Yeah, I mean, I think the power play had some good looks,” Nik Hong said. “Their goalie made a couple of good saves. I think another night, we could have had a couple on the power play. So I think nothing will really change from our end. We just got to kind of execute when we get those moments when we get the chances.”
Swinging the Momenteum in the Third
In the final frame, Army started to pick up their play. With 13:54 left, the Black Knights would head to their third power play of the game. On their previous power play, Army had hit a couple of posts and had some good looks, but this power play would be their best one of the night.
With around a minute left on the man advantage, sophomore Sam Grobner was able to find a shooting lane from the point to get his shot on goal. Croix Kochendorfer wasn’t able to cover the puck and ended up leaving a huge rebound at the side of the net, giving freshman Billy Batten the chance to tie this game up. With the net gaping, Batten would be robbed by Kochendorfer to keep the Black Knights off the board.
Not scoring affected Billy Batten on the bench, but credit to the freshman, he was able to re-group mentally.
A couple of shifts later, Batten would be rewarded for his effort and persistence in and around the net.
After getting the puck over the blue line, Sean Vlasich chipped the puck to Adam Marshall down below the left circle. Marshall, from behind the net, spun and threw the puck past three Colonials and into the feet of Batten in the blue paint. With no hesitation, the freshman chipped the puck past Croix Kochendorfer to tie the game at two with 7:56 remaining.
“I mean, I’m not going to lie, I was a little frustrated on the bench, Batten said after not scoring that chance on the power play. “But I have some good teammates that told me to just keep playing my game, get to the front of the net, and I did. Marsha made a nice pass, and I was able to finish it.”
Batten has been a noticeable player this season in his plebe year on post. Playing next to Nik Hong and Adam Marshall in recent games on the third line, he’s making the most of his chances, according to his head coach.
“Bats has been really good. He’s been good all year, but certainly since Christmas or that little break, he’s made a noticeable jump,” McKelvie said of his freshmen. “He’s just a really good 200-foot player, good defensively, good on the kill, good on the power play, very reliable. And so the way he’s come back from that break, we’ve been really proud of his effort because we knew he was going to be a good player. And sometimes, as a freshman, especially at West Point, that little reset at Christmas really helps our guys.”
Five Minute Power Play with a Chance to Win
Things would get even better for Army when Vincent Salice, chasing a puck along the endboards, was crunched into the boards to set up a five-minute power play for the Black Knights. Luckily for Salice, he was able to jump up instantly after what looked like a really dangerous hit.
On a power play that could have set up the game-winning goal for Army, it did about the opposite. During the five minutes of play, Army was only able to muster one shot on goal. In fact, Robert Morris also had one shot on JJ Cataldo. As the penalty started to wind down, it appeared that the Colonials had stolen all the goodwill that Army had built during the third period.
“Yeah, we just weren’t crisp on the power play,” said Zach McKelvie about the power play tonight. “You know, the power play is one of those things. It’s usually your 10 most skilled guys on the power play, both units. And they just weren’t. hitting their mark on passing tonight. Um… You know, we did have a couple of good looks on the five-on-three that didn’t go in, and things kind of progressively got worse through the power play, and the same thing with the major. We just didn’t have it; we were kind of out of sync. So they’ll have to figure that out by tomorrow night, but certainly it was a little bit disappointing.”
During the five-minute major, Army’s best chance came a minute in when sophomore Nils Forselius rang the crossbar. Overall, it was a very frustrating night on the man advantage for Zach McKelvie and the Black Knights as they headed to overtime for the seventh time this season.
“Yeah, I mean, it definitely is a momentum swing for the other team when they kill off a five-minute major, said Nik Hong. “But I think on our bench we never had any doubt that we were going to win this game. We knew coming into the third that we had to put up a much better effort. And we had the momentum the entire third period, so that wasn’t going to stop when we went into overtime.”
Honger the Hero!
In the extra period, it was Army that won the key opening faceoff of overtime. Winning that faceoff was key because they never lost that possession.
With the pressure starting to build as the clock wound down to a minute left, play finally opened up for Army, and they took their chance to put the game to bed.
In his own zone, junior Brent Keefer won a board battle, jump-starting a three-on-two the other way for Army. With a defender draped all over him, Keefer was able drop the puck off to the trailing Nik Hong.
Sneakily, Keefer held his defender’s stick in his midsection to remove him from the play. That set up Hong and Jude Brower on a partial two-on-one. Hong’s pass over to Brower for a one-timer forced Kochendorfer to get over to his left and make a save. But the Minnesota native left a rebound in the blue paint.
Kochendorfer did make the initial save, but the big goaltender put himself out of position in doing so. Standing all alone at the left post, Hong was just able to whack the puck over the goal line past the stick of the recovering defender to send Tate Rink into a frenzy.
“You know, it’s a great, great win for us to kind of come back even when we’re not playing our best in the first two periods to have the resilience to find a way to win a game. Keefer made a good play on that two-on-one, and Jude took a good shot and took a couple of whacks and was just kind of lucky to go in there.”
It’s a credit to the mental fortitude of Zach McKelvie’s team. Sure, they didn’t play their A-game or maybe even a B-game, but they got the job done. They could have packed it in after not scoring on a glorious opportunity that was a five-minute power play, but they were able to refocus on the bench and grab the extra point on Friday night.
When asked about his team’s ability to reset on the bench for overtime after not scoring on the five-minute major late in the third period, here’s what Zach McKelvie had to say about his team.
“Psychologically, when you have a five-minute power play with six and a half minutes left, and you don’t really get anything, that can really hurt your confidence and the momentum of the game. Even if you don’t score, you’ve got to try to generate momentum, and we didn’t. And actually, Robert Morris got a little bit of life from it. They kind of came at us that last minute and a half. So I was a little bit worried about that. For the most part in three-on-three, we possess the puck the whole time, and we capitalize on our chances.”
Wrapping up Friday Night
Army (9-10-5, 4-9-3 AHA) is back in action tomorrow evening as they wrap up the weekend with Robert Morris.
The Black Knights aim for their first sweep of the season with a victory. For that to come to fruition, Zach McKelvie needs to be a lot better Saturday evening.
Puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m at Tate Rink. It’s giveaway Saturday at West Point, with the first 1,000 fans receiving a custom Army chef’s apron.
Game Summary
Final Score (OT): Army 3, Robert Morris 2
Date: January 16th, 2026
Venue: Tate Rink, West Point, N.Y.
Attendance: 2,288
Officials: Referee – Patrick Sharron & Chris Henry; Linesman – Cameron Carlson & Jake Herzog
Scoring Summary
First Period
- 11:41 — Army: Jude Brower (Barron Woodring) EV — 1-0 Army
Second Period
- 13:29 — Robert Morris: Julian Beaumont (McKay Hayes & Patrick Johnson) EV — 1-1
- 16:38 — Robert Morris: Trent Wilson (Braden Rourke & McKay Hayes) EV — 2-1 Robert Morris
Third Period
- 12:05 — Army: Billy Batten (Adam Marshall & Sean Vlasich) EV — 2-2
Overtime
- 4:04 — Army: Nik Hong (Jude Brower & Brent Keefer) EV — 3-2 Army
Team Stats
| Stats Categories | Robert Morris Colonials | Army Black Knights |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | 2 | 3 |
| Shots | 33 | 33 |
| Power Play (Shots) | 0-1 (0) | 0-4 (6) |
| Penalty Minutes | 15 | 6 |
| Faceoffs Won | 42 | 35 |
| Blocked Shots | 23 | 20 |
Goaltending
Robert Morris Colonials
- Croix Kochendorfer (OTL): 30 Saves on 33 shots (.909 SV%)
Army Black Knights
- JJ Cataldo (OTW): 31 Saves on 33 Shots (0.939 SV%)
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