The 2022–23 Michigan Tech Huskies men's ice hockey season was the 102nd season of play for the program and 5th in the CCHA. The Huskies represented Michigan Technological University in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, were coached by Joe Shawhan in his 6th season and played their home games at MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
While the Huskies were coming off their best season in 6 years, the team lost a great deal of experience to graduation, including 5 of their top 6 scorers from 2022. As a result, expectations were low for Michigan Tech and the team was hovering around the bottoms of both preseason polls. The lack of offense was not too keenly felt as the Huskies were led by senior netminder, Blake Pietila and he turned in several stellar performances early. In October alone, Pietila earned three shutouts in non-conference play to stake Tech to a solid national ranking. By November some of the new players were being integrated into the lineup and Tech's offense began to improve. The biggest addition was the team's top prospect, Kyle Kukkonen, who led the Huskies' in goals for the year and was named the CCHA Rookie of the Year.
One of the biggest moment for the program in the first half was winning the weekend of last year's national runner-up, Minnesota State. The solid performance over the Mavericks was followed up by pair of sloppy weekends but as Tech entered the winter break they were back in the national polls.
Michigan Tech began the second half of the season with one of their worst performances on the year, losing 1–8 to Western Michigan. After the embarrassing defeat, the team recovered swiftly and won their next three games, two coming against ranked clubs, and finished by winning the Desert Hockey Classic. Pietila continued his outstanding play and carried the team to a 7–3–1 record in the second half against conference teams. Entering the final weekend of the year, the Huskies and Mavericks had a showdown in Mankato for the regular season championship with Tech needing both games to win the title. Pietila, who had set a new program record for shutout in 2022 with 7, opened the final series with his 9th shoutout on the year to at least temporarily lift Tech up to #1 in the conference. Unfortunately, the Huskies got into penalty trouble in the rematch and allowed 3 power play goals, losing 2–3 and letting the conference championship slip through their fingers.
Despite finishing 2nd, Michigan Tech was ranked ahead of Minnesota State nationally and were all but guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament so long as they got out of the first round. Tech was set opposite St. Thomas who, though they had made strides, were still a long-shot to beat MTU. Despite the difference in record, the Tommies played hard and gave the Huskies all they could handle. Pietila withstood an 18-shot barrage in the third period to allow Michigan Tech to escape with a 1–0 victory. The rematch was a completely different game as it was the offense that was key. Tristan Ashbrook and Kyle Kukkonen each scored twice to give the team two 3-goal leads. St. Thomas would not go away, however, and Tech was fighting for its life in the third when the Tommies came within a goal of tying the score. Pietila held in the end for another 1-goal win and a near-certain appearance in the NCAA tournament. The team's comfortable position turned out to be very important as Tech lost the conference semifinal to long-time rival Northern Michigan 0–4.
Michigan Tech returned to the NCAA tournament and were given a favorable draw in Penn State. The Nittany Lions had stumbled in the second half of the season, posting a record of 4–10–1 since January 1. As the game began, however, it was apparent that Penn State had come to play. PSU opened the scoring just over 2 minutes into the game and, though they didn't score again in the first, dominated the pace of play. Penn State broke the game open in the third and added three more goal to their total. Tech fought back with 13 shots in the middle frame but could not get anything past Liam Soulière. The game became comical in the third and the Nittany Lions scored 4 more times while Tech looked like they just wanted the game to end. When the dust settled, Tech had lost 0–8, the worst shutout defeat in NCAA tournament history. The horrible end marred what had previously been a very successful year for the Huskies.[1]
| Cayden Bailey | Goaltender | Left program (retired) | ||
| Trenton Bliss | Forward | Graduation (signed with Grand Rapids Griffins) | ||
| Alec Broetzman | Forward | Graduation (signed with Iowa Heartlanders) | ||
| Tyrell Buckley | Defenseman | Graduate transfer to Canisius | ||
| Brenden Datema | Defenseman | Transferred to Canisius | ||
| Grant Docter | Defenseman | Transferred to St. Thomas | ||
| Eric Gotz | Defenseman | Graduate transfer to Vermont | ||
| Forward | Graduation (signed with New Jersey Devils) | |||
| Michael Karow | Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Texas Stars) | ||
| Justin Misiak | Forward | Graduation (signed with Idaho Steelheads) | ||
| Tommy Parrottino | Forward | Graduation (signed with Idaho Steelheads) | ||
| Matthew Quercia | Forward | Graduation (signed with Wheeling Nailers) | ||
| Mark Sinclair | Goaltender | Graduation (signed with Cincinnati Cyclones) | ||
| Colin Swoyer | Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Pittsburgh Penguins) |
| Oliver Bezick | Defenseman | 21 | Delray Beach, FL | ||
| Frank Dovorany | Defenseman | 21 | Wausau, WI | ||
| Topi Heiskanen | Defenseman | 20 | Kuopio, FIN | ||
| David Jankowski | Forward | 25 | Dundas, ON
| ||
| Kyle Kukkonen | Forward | 19 | Maple Grove, MN
| ||
| Trevor Kukkonen | Forward | 21 | Maple Grove, MN | ||
| Michael Morelli | Goaltender | 21 | Arvada, CO | ||
| Ryan O'Connell | Defenseman | 23 | Gloucester, ON
| ||
| Evan Orr | Defenseman | 21 | Shelby Township, MI | ||
| Kash Rasmussen | Forward | 21 | Cochrane, AB | ||
| Kasper Vähärautio | Defenseman | 19 | Helsinki, FIN | ||
| Max Väyrynen | Goaltender | 20 | Espoo, FIN |
As of August 26, 2022.[2]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 39 | 12 | 19 | 31 | 13 | |||
| 39 | 18 | 9 | 27 | 18 | |||
| 39 | 11 | 11 | 22 | 10 | |||
| 29 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 8 | |||
| 34 | 3 | 15 | 18 | 34 | |||
| 37 | 10 | 7 | 17 | 14 | |||
| 39 | 8 | 9 | 17 | 12 | |||
| 35 | 1 | 15 | 16 | 26 | |||
| 34 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 30 | |||
| 32 | 1 | 13 | 14 | 12 | |||
| 37 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 17 | |||
| 30 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 22 | |||
| 28 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 2 | |||
| 38 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 31 | |||
| 24 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 8 | |||
| 24 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 2 | |||
| 28 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | |||
| 28 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | |||
| 16 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 10 | |||
| 32 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 12 | |||
| 35 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 14 | |||
| 16 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |||
| 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |||
| 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 103 | 171 | 274 | 321 |
|---|
| 37 | 2173:57 | 23 | 11 | 3 | 78 | 951 | 10 | .924 | 2.15 | ||
| 4 | 180:39 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 65 | 0 | .903 | 2.32 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 10:28 | - | - | - | 3 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 39 | 2365:04 | 24 | 11 | 4 | 88 | 1016 | 10 | .920 | 2.23 |
|---|
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 | 20 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 19 | 18 | 17 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 16 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 13 | 13 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 13 |
| USA Today | NR | 20 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 20 | 18 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | |||
| Blake Pietila | AHCA West All-American First Team | [5] |
| Blake Pietila | CCHA Player of the Year | [6] |
| Blake Pietila | CCHA Goaltender of the Year | [7] |
| Kyle Kukkonen | CCHA Rookie of the Year | [8] |
| Joe Shawhan | CCHA Coach of the Year | [9] |
| Blake Pietila | CCHA First Team | [10] |
| Ryland Mosley | ||
| Brett Thorne | CCHA Second Team | [11] |
| Kyle Kukkonen | CCHA Rookie Team | [12] |