The 2022–23 Denver Pioneers men's ice hockey season was the 74th season of play for the program and 10th in the NCHC. The Pioneers represented the University of Denver in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, were coached by David Carle in his 5th season and played their home games at Magness Arena.
Coming off of the program's 9th National Title, Denver, had 5 of the six regulars on the blueline returning, along with starter Magnus Chrona, and offense was taken over by a mix of returners, freshmen and transfers including Carter Mazur and Massimo Rizzo.
Denver retained its #1 ranking entering the season and won the Ice Breaker Tournament to kick off the '23 season. In the second week the team was swept by Massachusetts, and finished the first month of the season with 4 straight wins. Denver regained first place and kept their spot after losing to Omaha after Thanksgiving. By the winter break, Denver had a 7-game winning streak.
The Pioneers began the second half by losing to Alaska. Denver recovered to earn a split; the loss removed them from first place. The team won a pair of 7–0 shutouts over last-place Miami, and were then swept by St. Cloud State and had a place at the conference title.
Denver was 9–1 in their final ten games and finished well ahead of everyone else for the regular season crown and Denver made the NCAA tournament with one of the four #1 seeds. As they began their postseason run, Chrona was nursing a lower-body injury and could not play in the quarterfinals.[1] Denver defeated the Miami RedHawks. Chrona returned for the semifinal and was in goal against Colorado College. He allowed one marker on the power play. Denver was eliminated.[2]
The Pioneers still began the NCAA tournament as the #4 overall seed and had the top spot in the East Regionale. Their opponent in the first round was Cornell, who got off to a quick start and took an early lead. The team was shut out for the 5th time that season. It was the first time in nearly 30 years that Denver had been shut out in consecutive games.[3]
| Ryan Barrow | Forward | Graduation (signed with Manchester Storm) | ||
| Forward | Signed professional contract (Philadelphia Flyers) | |||
| Forward | Graduation (signed with Chicago Blackhawks) | |||
| Reid Irwin | Forward/Defenseman | Left program (retired) | ||
| Carter Savoie | Forward | Signed professional contract (Edmonton Oilers) | ||
| Brett Stapley | Forward | Graduation (signed with Laval Rocket) | ||
| Antti Tuomisto | Defenseman | Signed professional contract (HC TPS) | ||
| Jack Works | Forward | Transferred to Michigan Tech | ||
| Cameron Wright | Forward | Graduation (signed with Colorado Eagles) |
| Kent Anderson | Defenseman | 18 | Calgary, AB | ||
| Tristan Broz | Forward | 19 | Bloomington, MN | ||
| Casey Dornbach | Forward | 25 | Edina, MN
| ||
| Tyler Haskins | Forward | 19 | Rochester, MN | ||
| Tristan Lemyre | Forward | 21 | Mirabel, QC | ||
| Rieger Lorenz | Forward | 18 | Calgary, AB
| ||
| Lucas Ölvestad | Defenseman | 20 | Tampa, FL | ||
| Aidan Thompson | Forward | 20 | Fort Collins, CO
| ||
| Jared Wright | Forward | 20 | Burnsville, MN
|
As of August 26, 2022.[4]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition|-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 38 | 17 | 29 | 46 | 14 | |||
| 40 | 22 | 15 | 37 | 32 | |||
| 40 | 13 | 21 | 34 | 29 | |||
| 39 | 13 | 21 | 34 | 38 | |||
| 32 | 10 | 22 | 32 | 4 | |||
| 38 | 14 | 17 | 31 | 19 | |||
| 40 | 10 | 18 | 28 | 35 | |||
| 38 | 11 | 12 | 23 | 6 | |||
| 38 | 4 | 17 | 21 | 18 | |||
| 31 | 3 | 18 | 21 | 29 | |||
| 30 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 34 | |||
| 40 | 2 | 11 | 13 | 18 | |||
| 40 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 59 | |||
| 34 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 2 | |||
| 37 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 20 | |||
| 17 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 2 | |||
| 27 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 10 | |||
| 39 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 26 | |||
| 38 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 18 | |||
| 22 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 10 | |||
| 22 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |||
| 32 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 150 | 250 | 400 | 431 |
|---|
| 3 | 11:08 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1.000 | 0.00 | ||
| 13 | 509:27 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 185 | 1 | .925 | 1.77 | ||
| 32 | 1861:43 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 68 | 739 | 4 | .916 | 2.19 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 27:35 | - | - | - | 3 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 40 | 2409:53 | 30 | 10 | 0 | 86 | 928 | 5 | .915 | 2.14 |
|---|
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 | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 6 |
| USA Today | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 6 | |
| Michael Benning | AHCA West All-American Second Team | [7] | |
| Carter Mazur | |||
| Massimo Rizzo | |||
| Magnus Chrona | NCHC Goaltender of the Year | [8] | |
| Justin Lee | NCHC Defensive Defenseman of the Year | ||
| Michael Benning | NCHC Offensive Defenseman of the Year | ||
| Magnus Chrona | NCHC Three Stars Award | ||
| Magnus Chrona | NCHC First Team | [9] | |
| Michael Benning | |||
| Massimo Rizzo | |||
| Carter Mazur | NCHC Second Team | [10] |
| 5 | 133 | Sam Harris † | Montreal Canadiens |