From injuries to financial struggles to coaching changes, there’s only one word to precisely describe the 2024-25 season for the Clemson club ice hockey team: adverse. However, the Tigers learned this year, perhaps more than any other, that they’re beyond capable of succeeding in the face of adversity.
In the wake of their most successful season in club history last year — where the Tigers (17-12-1) tallied a winning record for the first time in every then-rostered player’s career, placed second overall in the College Hockey South Division II playoffs and received their second-ever, and consecutive, bid to the AAU National Tournament — the 2024-25 Tigers had big shoes to fill, to put it lightly.
However, after graduating six essential players and losing half its playing time, the team feared its success last season would be in vain. With these hindrances, in addition to a significant coaching change in January, financial struggles and a series of key players suffering season-altering injuries, continuing to develop as a program — let alone performing at the level of play the Tigers advanced to last year — seemed unachievable. Lo and behold, the team came back this year with a point to prove.
“We saw a lot of resilience out of the boys this year,” forward Will Ralsten told The Tiger. “Whether it was back-to-back weekends on the road or playing down some key players, it seemed like every weekend we had something that affected us. Everyone stepped up into bigger roles, both on and off the ice, and provided a good boost to team morale. It definitely showed the guys and also the other teams in the league that no matter what’s thrown at us, we’re going to show up and compete.”
With the weight of the world on its back, Clemson still managed a 10-4-0 record, marking its second consecutive 10-win season. Much like last year’s squad, the Tigers collected all 10 wins in just one semester, an early achievement that set the tone for last season’s historic run.
“We were able to string together a strong season,” Ralsten said. “We faced some adversity early on with a coaching change in January, but that didn’t seem to affect anyone on the team. We were able to stay focused throughout the season and had some really solid games.”
One of the Tigers’ most significant wins came early this season; shortly after relieving their former head coach of his duties, the Tigers traveled to Clarksville, Tennessee, to take on the then-No.1 team in the division: The Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. In a true testament to the team’s skill and untapped potential, Clemson upset Middle Tennessee State, 3-1, on Jan. 17, snapping the Blue Raiders’ 14-game win streak and handing them their first divisional loss of the season.
Prior to Clemson’s visit, the Blue Raiders had not lost a game since Sept. 20, 2024.
“Looking back on our season, I think our third game really set the tone,” Ralsten said. “We beat a good team in MTSU who at the time was the top team in our division. That game really showed us that we are able to compete with anyone in D2 and gave ourselves a lot of confidence moving forward.”
Since then, the Blue Raiders took home the Ameritrans Cup — the College Hockey South Division II trophy — and advanced to the semifinal round of the 2025 AAU Division II National Tournament, where they ultimately fell 8-2 to the Florida Atlantic Owls in pursuit of their first-ever national championship.
Though the Tigers declined to attend the AAU National Tournament this season, they attended the CHS Division II playoffs in Coral Springs, Florida, as the No. 1 seed in the North. Clemson narrowly defeated the Miami Hurricanes, 6-5, to advance to the quarterfinals but fell short, 5-3, to the South Florida Bulls the following day, barring them from competing against Middle Tennessee for the title.
“We would have loved to take home some hardware from our (conference) playoffs down in Florida, especially for the seniors, but we ran into a good team in USF and things just did not go our way that night,” Ralsten said. “Sometimes that’s just how it goes.”
And there are no doubts among the rest of the team that those 10 seniors — Conor Peterson, Cade Heinold, Mike McKeon, Christian Romeo, Ronan Bryant, Patrick O’Brien, Ethan Callahan, Jack Eggemeyer, Josh Bailey and Tommy Papa — who laced up their skates as Tigers for the last time at the end of February, will leave the program in a better place than they found it, both on and off the ice.
“Graduating both talent and leadership is never easy,” Ralsten added. “We’re going to miss all 10 of those guys. Coming into the season and at tryouts, we’re going to be looking at not only talent but also character. That’s something that we had a lot of in our senior class and is always tough to replace.”
It seems that next season, the Tigers will have even bigger shoes to fill, but if one thing has proven to be true for this program, it’s that it does not shy away from a challenge.
