The 2022–23 Colgate Raiders Men's ice hockey season was the 93rd season of play for the program and the 62nd in the ECAC Hockey conference. The Raiders represented the Colgate University, played their home games at Class of 1965 Arena and were coached by Don Vaughan, in his 30th season as their head coach.
Despite returning most of the players from the previous season, Colgate got off to a rather poor start. During the non-conference part of their schedule, the Raiders won just twice in eight games, leaving them floundering near the bottom of the national rankings. At the time the biggest problem for Colgate was the lack of scoring; the Raiders scored more than two goals in just two of those games (both wins) and had been shutout twice. The team suffered a third blanking at the hands of Clarkson in early November, however, after that loss the offense began to pick up the pace. Colgate wrapped a pair of 3-game winning streaks around a lost weekend at Niagara.
The Raiders kicked off the second half of their season with a decent showing against Maine but a bigger feat came in the middle of January. Coming off a disappointing loss to Cornell, Quinnipiac was feeling sorry for itself and was caught off guard by the Raiders. Colgate scored a victory against the then-number 1 team and put itself into a position for a possible bye for the ECAC tournament. The team's offense began to struggle once more and the Raiders won just 2 out of their last 10 games. Colgate finished the regular season with a losing record and were 1 point behind St. Lawrence for the final quarterfinal bye.
Entering postseason play, Colgate's only chance at a NCAA berth was by winning a conference championship, something the program hadn't done in 33 years. For the first round, at least, the team got a favorable draw by taking on Dartmouth, one of the worst teams in college hockey that year. While the Big Green opened the scoring, Colgate quickly tied the game and reeled off 5 consecutive goals to take a commanding lead. Two late markers by the Hanoverians tightened the final score but didn't stop the Raiders from reaching the quarterfinals. Now that they were facing a significantly better opponent, Colgate had a tougher time pulling out a win. The Raiders began the best of three series by playing a bad 1st period and falling behind 0–3. With the team needing a spark, alternate captain Colton Young stepped up and assisted on two of the team's three goals as they clawed back to tie the score. The match moved into overtime and, with Carter Gylander, standing tall in goal, Young netted the game-winner to put the Raiders up by 1. The two teams traded positions in the rematch with Colgate scoring the first 3 goals before St. Lawrence tried their hand at a comeback. Fortunately, the defense fared better than the Larries had and Colgate skated away with a victory, advancing to the semifinals.
The Raiders had to get through Quinnipiac to continue their season and faced a daunting challenge from the number 2 team in the nation. The Bobcats started fast, widely outshooting Colgate in the first, but it was Daniel Panetta who opened the scoring for the Raiders. Gylander and the defense weathered the storm and shut down Quinnipiac until the third, only allowing the Bobcats to score on the power play. As the game progressed, Colgate began to get the upper hand in term of offensive chances and the Raiders continued to press once overtime began. Near the middle of the 5th period, Ross Mitton was finally able to secure the game-winner and send the Raiders to the championship game.[1]
Colgate was making its first championship appearance since 2015 and faced the same opponent they had then in Harvard. While the Crimson were expected to win, they had already punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament, having been guaranteed a top-10 ranking regardless of the outcome of the game. With Colgate still playing to save their season, the Raiders got a jump on the match with goals from Colton and Alex Young in the first. Harvard cut into the lead in the third but the Raiders quickly reestablished their 2-goal edge. Harvard assailed Gylander in the third, firing 15 shots on goal to just 5 from Colgate. Matthew Coronato managed to get a goal on the power play but the Raider defense stopped the rest and Colgate won just the second conference championship in program history.
The reward for the raiders was being set against Michigan in the regional semifinals. Th high-powered Wolverines attacked the Colgate net all game but did give up several opportunities in the process. Colgate did well to end the first period down 0–1 and were just one mistake away from tying the game. The Raiders were continuing to hold Michigan back until part way through the second when Reid Irwin took a holding penalty. Michigan scored on its second power play opportunity which began a deluge of goals. In less than 10 minutes, the Wolverines scored 7 times and effectively ended the game. Nic Belpedio managed to get the Raiders lone goal early in the third and both teams appeared willing to just play out the rest of the game. At about the 50-minute mark, Alex Young received a match penalty for butt-ending Mackie Samoskevich and was ejected from the game. Irate at the penalty, Michigan went back on the attack during the major and scored three more goals to raise the score to an embarrassing 11–1 margin. Tempers cooled afterwards and the final five minutes passed without incident and the Raiders meekly ended their season.[2]
| Mitchel Benson | Goaltender | Graduate transfer to Boston College | ||
| Andrew Farrier | Goaltender | Graduation (retired) | ||
| William Friend | Goaltender | Graduation (retired) | ||
| Cole Hanson | Forward | Transferred to Maine | ||
| Paul McAvoy | Forward | Graduation (signed with Atlanta Gladiators) | ||
| Elliott McDermott | Defenseman | Transferred to Massachusetts | ||
| Josh McKechney | Forward | Graduation (signed with Atlanta Gladiators) | ||
| Jeffrey Stewart | Forward | Graduation (retired) |
| Nick Haas | Goaltender | 20 | Williamsville, NY | ||
| Simon Labelle | Forward | 21 | Ottawa, ON | ||
| Bobby Metz | Defenseman | 21 | Detroit, MI | ||
| Owen Neuharth | Forward | 20 | Prior Lake, MN | ||
| Daniel Panetta | Forward | 21 | Belleville, ON | ||
| Andrew Takacs | Goaltender | 21 | Bowie, MD | ||
| Sebastian Tamburro | Forward | 20 | Toronto, ON |
As of August 26, 2022.[3]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 40 | 21 | 18 | 39 | 37 | |||
| 40 | 16 | 19 | 35 | 23 | |||
| 40 | 3 | 26 | 29 | 39 | |||
| 40 | 11 | 17 | 28 | 35 | |||
| 40 | 9 | 18 | 27 | 10 | |||
| 40 | 11 | 15 | 26 | 24 | |||
| 34 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 22 | |||
| 40 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 6 | |||
| 40 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 14 | |||
| 39 | 1 | 13 | 14 | 45 | |||
| 34 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 4 | |||
| 40 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 25 | |||
| 40 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 37 | |||
| 39 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 14 | |||
| 38 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 6 | |||
| 32 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 20 | |||
| 28 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 27 | |||
| 25 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |||
| 30 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |||
| 13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 39 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 16 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||
| 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | |||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 113 | 197 | 310 | 414 |
|---|
| 39 | 2385:34 | 19 | 15 | 5 | 98 | 1044 | 2 | .914 | 2.46 | ||
| 8 | 83:23 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 27 | 0 | .818 | 4.32 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 14:37 | - | - | - | 5 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 40 | 2483:34 | 19 | 16 | 5 | 109 | 1071 | 2 | .908 | 2.63 |
|---|
See main article: 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey rankings.
| Poll | Week | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 (Final) | ||||
| USCHO.com | NR | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 19 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 18 |
| USA Today | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 19 | 20 | 20 | |||
| Matt Verboon | ECAC Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year | [6] |
| Carter Gylander | ECAC Hockey Most Outstanding Player in Tournament | [7] |
| Alex Young | ECAC Hockey First Team | [8] |
| Carter Gylander | ECAC Hockey All-Tournament Team | |
| Ross Mitton | ||
| Alex Young | ||