The 2024–25 LIU Sharks men's ice hockey season was the 5th season of play for the program. The Sharks represented Long Island University in the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at the Northwell Health Ice Center and were coached by Brett Riley, in his 5th season.
Season.
Long Island had an inauspicious start to its season. After both Noah Rupprecht and the offense failed to show up in the season opener, freshman netminder Daniel Duris got his turn as the starter. He backstopped the Sharks to a win the following night but then the offense vanished for the next three games. In the first game of their series with Notre Dame, Duris was injured while making a save. After being helped off the ice in considerable pain, the team eventually revealed that Duris would be out for the remainder of the year. With Rupprecht back in goal for the foreseeable future, the scoring miraculously reappeared but it was the team's penalty kill that saved the day. Despite handing Notre Dame four power plays in the match, LIU was able to kill off three disadvantages. On top of that, Riley Wallack managed to score a short-handed marker to lift the Sharks over their ranked opponent.
After a week off, the team returned for a match with New Hampshire and the game could hardly have gone worse for the Sharks. After opening the scoring on the power play, the team surrendered the next six goals and were widely outshot in the contest. They had a bit of a reprieve the following week, sweeping Stonehill thanks to five man-advantage goals over the weekend. The wins seemed to awaken something in the team and Long Island fought hard against Providence. The Sharks used two power play goals in the first period to build an early lead and then had to rely on a stellar performance from Rupprecht to keep them in the game. Despite surrendering the lead, Nick Bernardo scored his first of the season with just 19 seconds left in the middle frame to give LIU its second lead. Rupprecht turned aside several chances in the third to preserve the lead but could not stop the Friars once they pulled their goaltender. After Providence tied the game for the second time to force overtime, the home team delighted its fans with a winning goal.
While the team had played well, and were sitting in the top half of the PairWise rankings by the end of November, coach Riley was looking for a spark. Ty Outen, a transfer from Division III Stevenson, was inserted into the starting role against Yale. The Sharks responded by sweeping the weekend thanks mostly to the power play continuing to operate at a high level as well as the defense surrendering just 43 shots in two games. Outen picked up his first shutout in the rematch and continued his steady play against Vermont the following week. Despite a hiccup in the second game where he allowed 6 goals, Outen remained the starter and backstopped the team to two more victories to finish off the first half of their schedule. At that time, the Sharks sat at #21 in the PairWise and were flirting with a potential NCAA tournament bid. However, due to their weak schedule in the second half, the team could ill afford any losses if they wanted to make their first postseason appearance.
Unfortunately, the offense was a no-show after their break and the Sharks went scoreless in the return to play. Rupprecht was reinserted as the starter for the next game and put up his best performance to date, allowing just 1 goal on 24 shots. He remained the starter for the following week when the offense exploded. Long Island scored 24 goals in 2 games at the beginning of January, however, those games both came against Division II opponents. While the individual points were counted, neither game mattered for the national rankings. To make make matters worse, the offense regressed the week after and cost the Sharks two winnable games. The losses to Colgate and the succeeding loss to Wisconsin all but ended LIU's chances for the tournament but the team did not give up. In the rematch with the Badgers, Long Island's defense showed out and held Wisconsin to just 24 shots in the game.
Once the Sharks got back from another week-long break, the team began a 5-week stretch to end the season with all of their games coming against fellow independent programs. LIU proved itself to be the best of the lot by going 8–2 to end the season. Forwards Josh Zary and Carter Rapalje were instrumental in leading the team to its first 20-win season by scoring 10 and 9 points respectively down the stretch. As it had all season, the power play was also responsible for much of the scoring with LIU getting at least one goal on the man-advantage in seven of their final ten matches. However, over the previous two seasons, LIU had not had too much trouble scoring. This was the third straight season that the Sharks surpassed 100 goals as a team. The main reason Long Island was able post its first winning record was from the much-improved play in goal. The combined efforts of Rupprecht and Outen enabled the team to cut the team's goal against average by over half a goal (2.77 to 2.25) and put Long Island into close contact with some of the top defensive teams in the country.
Schedule and results.
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
Rankings.
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