The 2022–23 Merrimack Warriors Men's ice hockey season was the 68th season of play for the program, the 34th at the Division I level, and the 34th in the Hockey East conference. The Warriors represented Merrimack College and were coached by Scott Borek, in his 5th season.
On October 4, just before the first game of the season, Merrimack announced the death of assistant coach Josh Ciocco.[1] Ciocco was one of the first players head coach Scott Borek had recruited as an assistant at New Hampshire in 2002 and the two had been close ever since.[2]
In spite of the grave news, Merrimack opened its season on October 7 and, unsurprisingly, the team had a flat performance. However, the following night, the Warriors fought back after getting down in the second with a tremendous final period to earn their first win of the season. A pair of splits at the end of October weren't bad results as one came against #5 Massachusetts, but the team was still sitting near .500 at the beginning of November. In the second month of the campaign, however, Merrimack would do Ciocco proud and make a change towards the top of the national rankings.
While the team briefly experimented with having Hugo Ollas as the primary starter, they soon reverted back to the goaltender rotation they had used in '22. Ollas was still performing well but Zachary Borgiel, who had been the starter during the difficult COVID season, saw a vast improvement in his play and cut nearly a full goal from his GAA. With both goaltenders playing stellar hockey, Merrimack won their first 6 games in November to charge to the top of the Hockey East standings. The offense, led by Alex Jefferies, was a bit hit or miss but they were able to score enough to give the Warriors the victory on most nights.
A split with Connecticut ended the winning streak but Merrimack kept their foot on the gas and finished out the first half of their season with three consecutive wins over ranked teams. As they headed into the winter break, the Warriors were well inside the top 10 for both polls but, more importantly, they were #3 in the PairWise and only a catastrophe would keep them out of the NCAA tournament.
Merrimack kicked off the second half of its season with an appearance in the Ledyard Bank Classic. After finishing as the tournament runners-up, The Warriors returned home and promptly lost their place in the polls. A 5-game homestand at the beginning of January turned into a complete debacle and the team won just once as the offense flagged. Worse, they managed to lose to Brown and could only earn a tie against Yale, two of the worst teams in college hockey. Things got even worse when they went on a 5-game road trip and again could only earn a single victory. 2 wins in 10 games sent the team plummeting to the bottom of the polls and pushed them below the cut line for an at-large bid.
With their season swiftly spiraling out of control, the Warriors had to run the table in their final 5 games if they wanted to have any chance at making the NCAA tournament without a conference championship. It was the perfect time for Merrimack to run into league-leading Boston University as the offense suddenly was able to score once more. The Warriors swept the home-and-home series against the Terriers and then repeated the feat a week later against #19 Massachusetts Lowell. The wins pushed Merrimack up to 14 in the rankings, inside the tournament but only just.
Merrimack finished the season 2nd in Hockey East, the best finish since joining the conference in 1989, but still had to fight to make the tournament.[3] because several other teams were also jockeying for an at-large bid, a loss in the postseason could easily knock the Warriors out. After receiving a bye into the quarterfinals, Merrimack opened their playoffs against Boston College. Despite carrying the play for much of the game, the Warriors were unable to get a goal past the Eagle netminder. Fortunately, Ollas was equal to the challenge and held BC off the scoresheet as well. The overtime session was dominated by BC, who fired 13 shots on Ollas, but he stood tall and turned everything aside, forcing the game into a second overtime. The 5th period was a bit more sedate, with only 5 shots combined through 8 minutes. However, the last one came from Mick Messner and gave the Warriors the win.[4]
The offense continued to struggle in the semifinal and only managed one goal through 60 minutes. This time it was Borgiel's turn to be the hero and he shut Lowell down until 31 left in regulation. The River hawks tied the game with an extra attacker and carried that momentum into overtime. Once again Merrimack was outshot, this time by a 19–12 margin, but they were saved by their goaltender. The Warriors played back-to-back double overtime games and, miraculously, a Matt Copponi goal allowed them to win both.
By Making the championship game, and with a little help from other teams losing in the meantime, Merrimack had all but guaranteed itself a spot in the NCAA tournament. At the start of championship Saturday, Merrimack was sitting at #13 in the PairWise rankings. For various reasons, the winners of the Atlantic Hockey, Big Ten and CCHA tournaments would not affect the at-large selections for the NCAA tournament. Only upsets in either the ECAC or NCHC tournaments would knock teams out from the top-15. Unfortunately, if Merrimack lost to BU in the title game, they would slip below Cornell and could be left out of the tournament with those two upsets. With everything to play for, Merrimack got off to a strong start, opening the scoring with a short-handed marker. Because Boston University took a penalty on the play, they saw their own power play end and gave an abbreviated one to the Warriors. Merrimack didn't score, but that was the least of their worries. The Warriors were called for three more minors in the second half of the first and gave BU a 5-on-3 at the start of the second. The Terriers took full advantage and tied the score despite the efforts of Ollas. Luckily, the defense held for the rest of the period and stopped BU from adding to their total. Merrimack regained the lead in the latter part of the period but BU was able to match the goal midway through the third. With neither team giving an inch, Merrimack headed into overtime for the third game in a row. Unfortunately, Lane Hutson scored on the first shot of the extra session and won the title for the Terriers.[5]
In the meantime, Colgate had won the ECAC title and put Merrimack on the edge of the abyss. The team had to sit and watch, hoping that St. Cloud State would prove victorious in their match. When the final score read 3–0 in favor of the Huskies, the Warriors could breathe a sigh of relief. Merrimack was the final entry into the NCAA tournament, their first appearance for the program in 12 years.
While happy to have made the tournament, the team knew that things were only going to be more difficult for them. As a #4 seed, Merrimack was going to get an unfavorable draw and they ended up being set opposite Quinnipiac. The Bobcats had been one of the best teams all season long and were one of the favorites to win the national title at the start of the tournament. From the drop of the puck, Quinnipiac's speed demonstrated why they had had such success during the year as they outshot the Warriors 7–14 in the first period. Borgiel, however, managed to turn everything aside and keep the Bobcats off the scoresheet. Merrimack would have to wait for its opportunity to score on the nation's top defense and hope that Borgiel could keep them in the match in the meantime. Unfortunately, Quinnipiac also possessed the #3 offense in the country and they proved that with a pair of goals just 3:30 into the second period. Down by a pair with their own offensive woes still unsettled, Merrimack needed a big effort from their forwards to get them back into the game. Unfortunately, the Bobcats controlled the puck for the entire game. Merrimack was only able to get 15 shots on goal and none of them found the back of the net. Quinnipiac added three more goals in the third but, without any real offensive push, the Warriors couldn't do anything to stop their season from coming to a close.[6]
| Declan Carlile | Defenseman | Signed professional contract (Tampa Bay Lightning) | ||
| Logan Drevitch | Forward | Graduation (signed with Savannah Ghost Pirates) | ||
| Jake Durflinger | Forward | Graduation (signed with Florida Everblades) | ||
| Steven Jandric | Forward | Graduation (signed with Worcester Railers) | ||
| Regan Kimens | Forward | Left program (retired) | ||
| Troy Kobryn | Goaltender | Transferred to American International | ||
| Max Newton | Forward | Graduation (signed with Worcester Railers) | ||
| Ryan Nolan | Forward | Transferred to Michigan State | ||
| Zach Uens | Defenseman | Signed professional contract (Florida Panthers) | ||
| Zach Vinnell | Defenseman | Transferred to Bowling Green | ||
| Liam Walsh | Forward | Transferred to Northeastern |
| Steven Bacovsky | Goaltender | 21 | Calgary, AB | ||
| Zach Bookman | Defenseman | 20 | Syracuse, NY | ||
| Nikita Borodayenko | Forward | 20 | Dmitrov, RUS | ||
| Forward | 24 | Scarborough, ON
| |||
| Tristan Crozier | Forward | 24 | North Vancouver, BC
| ||
| Trevor Griebel | Forward/Defenseman | 21 | Tampa, FL | ||
| Ryan Leibold | Forward | 23 | Ashburn, VA
| ||
| Ottoville Leppänen | Forward | 24 | Espoo, FIN
| ||
| Tyler Young | Forward | 21 | Lancaster, MA |
As of September 27, 2022.[7]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 38 | 14 | 27 | 41 | 16 | |||
| 37 | 14 | 15 | 29 | 30 | |||
| 38 | 14 | 12 | 26 | 39 | |||
| 38 | 6 | 19 | 25 | 10 | |||
| 38 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 27 | |||
| 37 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 18 | |||
| 36 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 16 | |||
| 37 | 3 | 13 | 16 | 18 | |||
| 35 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 10 | |||
| 32 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 12 | |||
| 38 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 27 | |||
| 31 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 4 | |||
| 38 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 4 | |||
| 35 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 24 | |||
| 33 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 27 | |||
| 32 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 14 | |||
| 38 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 2 | |||
| 19 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 10 | |||
| 16 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 10 | |||
| 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||
| 17 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 21 | |||
| 26 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |||
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 22 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |||
| 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| Total | 106 | 184 | 290 | 370 |
|---|
| 18 | 1156:00 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 40 | 451 | 1 | .919 | 2.08 | ||
| 20 | 1191:48 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 46 | 497 | 5 | .915 | 2.32 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 16:51 | - | - | - | 3 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 38 | 2364:39 | 23 | 14 | 1 | 89 | 948 | 6 | .914 | 2.26 |
|---|
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 | 19 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 6 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 8 | 10 | 11 | 16 | 15 | 19 | 20 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 14 | 14 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 14 |
| USA Today | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 19 | 17 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | |||
| Alex Jefferies | AHCA East Second Team All-American | [10] |
| Alex Jefferies | Hockey East First Team | [11] |
| Hugo Ollas | Hockey East Third Team | [12] |
| Christian Felton | Hockey East All-Tournament Team | [13] |
| Matt Copponi | ||
| 7 | 216 | Edmonton Oilers |