West Point, N.Y. — In a sold-out Tate Rink, the Army Black Knights fought tooth and nail with the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers, losing 3-2 in overtime.
Coming off a weekend in which Army took two of six points from Holy Cross, Zach McKelvie and his team were looking for a big bounce-back at home. They didn’t accomplish the sweep they hoped for following their 6-2 victory Friday night, but four out of six points is crucial in their push for a higher seed in the Atlantic Hockey America standings.
“I think the silver lining is that we did get four out of six points and won the series,” said McKelvie. “It’s a step in the right direction for sure. I really liked how resilient we were. We get that penalty shot late, and he [Dylan Wegner] went out and made a big-time play to tie the game. And that point was huge. I wasn’t happy with the way we played overall, but just proud of the way we stuck in the game and never quit.”
Freshman Billy Batten got Army on the board in the first period, but RIT responded with a goal in the second and another in the third to take a 2-1 lead. With Army pushing for the tying goal late, the Team was awarded a penalty shot when an RIT player covered the puck with his hand in the crease.
Army sent out sophomore Dylan Wegner, and the fourth liner capitalized on his opportunity to force overtime. “He’s a killer”, said junior captain Barron Woodring.
In overtime, RIT found the game-winning goal and left Tate Rink with the extra point. Sophomore goaltender JJ Cataldo made his fourteenth consecutive start, facing 33 shots.
The loss sees Army’s record fall to 11-13-5 on the season and 6-12-3 (22 points) in Atlantic Hockey play, while the Tigers’ victory improves their record to 16-12-2 this season, with a conference record of 12-8-2 (39 Points).
The power play has been the biggest strength for Army this weekend against the Rochester Institute of Technology. It only took the Tigers 7:40 to take their first penalty tonight, and the Black Knight took full advantage of the early man-advantage.
“The power play was really good, especially last night,” said Zach McKelvie. “Tonight, the first two weren’t great, but to go 4/7 this weekend is big. We haven’t been playing the way we want to play, and they just got back to the details and fundamentals, and it paid off this weekend.”
The first minute of the power play was killed to perfection by RIT, with the Tigers even giving Army a little scare in their own zone.
With the second unit now on the ice, Army was skating three-on-three at the RIT blue line. Nils Forselius and Nik Hong played catch entering the zone, and when Forselius played his initial pass, two defenders went to Hong, giving Army a partial two-on-one.
The remaining defender attempted to close the space between him and Forselius, but that opened up a pass to a driving Bill Baten at the back post. Forselius played a perfect pass to Baten in the slot, and the freshman buried his chance to give Army a critical early 1-0 lead at Tate Rink.
Captain Barron Woodring echoed what his coach said about the team needing to get back to basics on their power play and this week in practice helped them get back on track.
“Yeah, I mean, RIT, they’ve had a great penalty kill all year, and for us, we’ve been a little sloppy lately on our power plays. So definitely this week during practice, we’ve got a lot of reps down. Just getting back to the basics, not trying to overcomplicate things on the power play, just moving the puck well. Really connecting with the guys and just repping it out. And I think that’s what helped us obviously get some goals this weekend, things were clicking. And moving forward, I think that’s going to be the key for us is just keep working through it. We’ll have our ups and downs, but in big games like this, we’ve got to come through.”
That lead would last only a period for Army, with the Tigers getting on the board seven minutes into the second period.
Through twenty-seven minutes of play, Army had very little offensive zone time, but were inches away from doubling their lead when [] hit the crossbar, before bouncing out of danger in the blue paint. Army retained possession of the puck, but a pass back to the point was misplayed by Nils Forselius, creating a breakaway chance for RIT.
Using his explosive speed, Evan Konyen skated past Forselius, who attempted to trip him at the Army blue line. One-on-one with JJ Cataldo, Konyen went low towards the five-hole, and it seemed to be saved by Cataldo, but it eventually squeezed through his legs and over the line to tie the game at one.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to win games 1-0,” Zach McKelvie said. “So when the other team scores… You just have to reset. I mean, it’s happened. Shutouts are pretty rare at this level, at any level. You know, we actually had pretty good movement in that shift, and then we passed the puck back up to the point, and there was a forward covering there, and it just kind of rolled off our stick, and it was a little bit of a reach for him. When that happens, the team’s just got to regroup, reset, and keep going forward.”
In the third period Army started to turn the pressure up on RIT. Zach McKelive called it the team’s best period of the weekend. The Black Knights would go on to outshoot the Tigers 19-5 as they looked to retake the lead. Army found themselves with a golden chance to do so on the stick of their captain, Barron Woodring.
Shorthanded, Army stood up RIT at their blue line, and Woodring had a breakaway from center ice. Eye-to-eye with Jakub Krbecek, Woodring went with a forehand, backhand move, but Krbecek stayed with him all the way and bailed RIT out of trouble.
That miss came to bite the Black Knight in the butt when RIT took a 2-1 lead when Caleb Elfering slightly tipped a Crossley Stewert shot past JJ Cataldo with just over six minutes on the clock.
With the time winding down, Army put two feet on the gas pedal and peppered Krbecek’s net. Army had countless grade-A opportunities to tie the game, including a Brent Keefer shot in the slot and Ben Ivey at the side of the net, but Army couldn’t beat the sophomore from Czechia.
A Penalty Shot???
As the clock hit under thirty seconds, Nils Forselius, patiently holding the puck in the right circle, got his shot past Krbecek, but it was blocked in the crease, and then all hell broke loose.
As the whistle was blown by the officials, all of Army players on the ice signaled to the bench that one of the RIT players covered the puck with his glove in the crease. Zach McKelvie and his staff challenged and were awarded a penalty shot with only 14.9 seconds left on the clock.
Army’s been in multiple shootouts this season, and when McKelvie suggested a couple of names to take the shot, everyone looked toward sophomore Dylan Wegner. “All the guys on the bench pointed to one guy, and that was Wagner,” according to McKelvie.
As a fourth liner, Wegner knows his role. In the third period, the Nashville, Tennessee native played just a handful of shifts, but in the biggest moment in the game, he took the puck for his team.
Wegner attacked with a slow pace, first going right and then crossing the blue line down the left boards. Lulling Krbecek to sleep with the puck on his backhand, Wegner, with his quick hands, faked the backhand to his forehand, beating the sprawling Krbecek to tie the game at 2-2.
DRAMA AT TATE RINK!
Army awarded a penalty shot with 14.9 seconds left after an RIT player covered the puck in the crease.
Sophomore Dylan Wegner stepped up and beat Jakub Krbecek to force overtime, his first goal of the season. WOW! #GoArmypic.twitter.com/OgGHiJMW7H
“Yeah, we just all have a lot of belief in him,” said Billy Batten. “We’ve seen him time and time again in practice, just continuously scoring on the goalies when we do shootouts. Everyone looked at him right away, and he answered the bell.”
For the third series in-a-row, Army would need overtime to settle the score. In the previous two series against Holy Cross and Robert Morris, Army came out on top both times.
This time around, overtime wasn’t so kind to Army. Evan Konyen, RIT’s leading scorer this season, was able to get just enough space around Brent Keefer to find Simon Isabelle fading into an open pocket of space in the slot. Isabelle’s one-timer was too quick for JJ Cataldo to get his right pad on, and the Tigers jumped off the bench to celebrate their victory at Tate Rink.
Looking Forward to Next Weekend
Army (11-13-5, 6-12-3 AHA) is back in action midweek. The Black Knights travel to Waltham, Massachusetts, to take on first-place Bentley on Tuesday, February 10th. With just five games on the schedule, eighth-place Army is running out of opportunities to climb the AHA standings.
The Falcons are coming off a series split with Holy Cross and will be looking to avenge their Saturday night 4-1 loss when Army comes to town. Bentley has four players with twenty or more points, with Jake Black leading the way with 29 (13 Goals & 16 Assists).
Puck drop at Bentley Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m Saturday.
Game Summary
Final Score (OT): Army 2, Rochester Institute of Technology 3 Date: February 7th, 2026 Venue: Tate Rink, West Point, N.Y. Attendance: 2,508 Officials: Referees – Anthony Kenny & Christopher Leavitt; Linesmen – Jake Herzog & Spencer Wolf
Scoring Summary
First Period
8:45 — Army: Billy Batten (Nils Forselius & Nik Hong) PP — 1-0 Army
Second Period
7:00 — RIT: Evan Konyen (Unassisted) EV — 1-1
Third Period
13:55 — RIT: Caleb Elfering (Crossley Stewert & William Moore) EV — 2-1 RIT
19:45 — Army: Dylan Wegner (Penalty Shot) — 2-2
Overtime
3:54 — RIT: Simon Isabelle (Evan Konyen & Tristan Allen) EV — 3-2 RIT
Team Stats
Stats Categories
Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers
Army Black Knights
Goals
3
2
Shots
33
33
Power Play (Shots)
0-2 (2)
1-3 (2)
Penalty Minutes
10
6
Faceoffs Won
33
28
Blocked Shots
13
10
Goaltending
Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers
Jakub Krbecek (OTW): 31 Saves on 33 shots (.939 SV%)
Army Black Knights
JJ Cataldo (OTL): 30 Saves on 33 Shots (0.909 SV%)
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