The 2022–23 St. Cloud State Huskies men's ice hockey season was the 88th season of play for the program, the 26th at the Division I level and 10th in the NCHC. The Huskies represented St. Cloud State University in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, were coached by Brett Larson in his 5th season and played their home games at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
Entering the year, St. Cloud was having to contend with the loss of several key players, including two Olympians. An already veteran roster was augmented by the addition of three transfers with the biggest unknown coming in goal. Dávid Hrenák had been the team's starting goalie for 5 years and replacing him would not be an easy task. Jaxon Castor had sat behind Hrenák for 3 years with mixed results while Dominic Basse was brought in after two years with Colorado College. Coach Larson decided to alternate between the two and both netminders performed wonderfully. St. Cloud won their first 6 games of the season, including a sweep of national Runner-Up Minnesota State.
The goalies were aided by the ascension of several players, particularly Jami Krannila and Zach Okabe, who improved their performance and took over as the team's leaders. The other two transfers fit in seamlessly with their new team as Grant Cruikshank swiftly became the Huskies' top goal scoring threat. Dylan Anhorn, however, was a revelation for the club. The senior defenseman shot out of the gate and was seemingly scoring in every game He posted 21 points by the winter break and helped lift St. Cloud into the top 5 in both polls. He wasn't solely an offensive contributor as he also led the Huskies in blocked shots and +/-. In the team's first 18 games, they lost back-to-back games just once and had done no worse than break even in every weekend series. Even with the rest of the NCHC having a down year, the Huskies were one of the bright spots for the conference and were a near certainty to make the tournament at the midway point of the season.
St. Cloud didn't appear to lose any steam at the start of the second half. The goalie rotation was altered slightly, giving the two netminders more than one game at a time, but that the team from sweeping Denver in mid January to take over as the #1 team in both the NCHC standings and the national polls. Unfortunately, just before the second game against the Pios, Anhorn suffered a lower body injury in warmups and would miss the rest of the season after having surgery to fix the problem.[1] In his wake of Anhorn's ailment, St. Cloud didn't win a game for 3 weeks and were swept by an underperforming Minnesota Duluth team. The Huskies stumbled to the finish line, ending the regular season 4th in the conference.
While the Huskies had barely finished in the top half of the NCHC, they were still highly ranked overall and were guaranteed to make the NCAA tournament. That, however, was not enough for the team as St. Cloud still needed to recover its early-season form if they had any hope of making a run in the tournament. Basse was given a turn in goal and led the team into the postseason against Duluth. After a good first game, Basse crumbled in the rematch and allowed 4 goals in 22 shots. Castor got his opportunity in the deciding third game and grabbed onto his opportunity with both hands. With the offense playing well, St. Cloud edged out the Bulldogs and advanced to the semifinals.[2]
By the time they arrived in Saint Paul, St. Cloud seemed to have figured out its defensive situation but the offense still needed some work. They fact was on full display against North Dakota as the team was only able to muster 15 shots in regulation. While they were fortunate enough to get 2 goals with that paltry output, the defense was able to hold off the Fighting Hawks and only surrendered 2 markers themselves. In overtime, however, the Huskies went on the attack and fired 6 shots in under 6 minutes. The team seized the momentum and pressed forward until Okabe broke through with the game-winner. The title game was a little more sedate with St. Cloud being in control for most of the match. Colorado College had a weak offense and couldn't keep up with the Huskies as the dogs were getting into their stride. Castor posted his third shutout of the season to lead the team to their first conference championship in 7 years.[3]
Returning to the tournament for the 5th consecutive season, St. Cloud got a #2 seed in the western regional. However, despite being close to home, the Huskies got an unfavorable draw by having to face Minnesota State who were hot on the heels of their own championship. The defense and Castor had to weather an incessant push by the Maverick offense but the Huskies were up to the task. Despite being outshot 4–10 in the first, the scoresheet remained empty. The second was a bit more even but MSU still carried the balance of play. It wasn't until St. Cloud's second power play opportunity that they began to see things swing in their favor. Veeti Miettinen fired a seeing-eye shot through a maze of bodies from the right circle that somehow found the back of the net. About five minutes later, Jack Peart accomplished a similar feat from the top of the left circle and St. Cloud took a 2-goal lead into the final period. Minnesota State continued to press, trying to find a way to tie the game, but the couldn't solve Castor. Two more goals increased the Huskies' lead but didn't change the outcome and St. Cloud advanced to the regional final.[4]
In yet another battle of Minnesota teams, the Huskies took on the vaunted Golden Gophers who had been the #1 team for the past few months. Even so, the Huskies had already defeated Minnesota earlier in the season so they knew that they had a solid chance going into the game. Just like the MSU game, the Gophers dominated early and outshout St. Cloud 6–14 in the first 20 minutes. Unlike the previous game, however, Minnesota was able to get out to a 1–0 lead and end Castor's shutout streak. Adam Ingram got the Huskies back even with the power play marker early in the second but that was all St. Cloud State could get. Minnesota scored the final three goals of the game, relying on their overpowering defensive corps to stifle the Huskies and win the game 4–1.[5]
| Easton Brodzinski | Forward | Graduation (signed with Hartford Wolf Pack) | ||
| Seamus Donohue | Defenseman | Graduation (signed with South Carolina Stingrays) | ||
| Kevin Fitzgerald | Forward | Graduation (signed with South Carolina Stingrays) | ||
| Forward | Graduation (signed with Minnesota Wild) | |||
| Dávid Hrenák | Goaltender | Graduation (signed with Los Angeles Kings) | ||
| Lucas Jaycox | Defenseman | Graduation (signed with South Carolina Stingrays) | ||
| Jack Johnston | Forward | Left program (retired) | ||
| Joseph Lamoreaux | Goaltender | Transferred to Alaska Anchorage | ||
| Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Tampa Bay Lightning) | |||
| Thomas Rocco | Forward | Left program (retired) | ||
| Nolan Walker | Forward | Graduation (signed with Toronto Marlies) |
| Grant Ahcan | Forward | 20 | Burnsville, MN | ||
| Defenseman | 23 | Calgary, AB
| |||
| Ethan Aucoin | Forward | 20 | Calgary, AB | ||
| Dominic Basse | Goaltender | 21 | Alexandria, VA
| ||
| Grant Cruikshank | Forward | 24 | Delafield, WI
| ||
| James Gray | Goaltender | 20 | Toronto, ON | ||
| Adam Ingram | Forward | 18 | Winnipeg, MB
| ||
| Mason Reiners | Defenseman | 21 | Edina, MN | ||
| Jack Rogers | Forward | 19 | East Northport, NY | ||
| Cooper Wylie | Defenseman | 20 | Stillwater, MN |
As of August 23, 2022.[6]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" | |-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 41 | 21 | 19 | 40 | 43 | |||
| 41 | 23 | 15 | 38 | 16 | |||
| 41 | 18 | 18 | 36 | 24 | |||
| 41 | 12 | 24 | 36 | 0 | |||
| 35 | 10 | 15 | 25 | 10 | |||
| 23 | 5 | 25 | 25 | 12 | |||
| 39 | 3 | 21 | 24 | 24 | |||
| 41 | 8 | 15 | 23 | 20 | |||
| 41 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 18 | |||
| 35 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 11 | |||
| 41 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 33 | |||
| 38 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 12 | |||
| 32 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 48 | |||
| 32 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 2 | |||
| 34 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 14 | |||
| 24 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 11 | |||
| 40 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 10 | |||
| 30 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 4 | |||
| 30 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 10 | |||
| 19 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | |||
| 19 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | |||
| 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 19 | |||
| 19 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |||
| 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||
| Total | 133 | 230 | 363 | 371 |
|---|
| 23 | 1368:02 | 14 | 8 | 1 | 46 | 557 | 4 | .924 | 2.02 | ||
| 19 | 1094:09 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 42 | 430 | 3 | .911 | 2.30 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 32:46 | - | - | - | 7 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 41 | 2494:57 | 25 | 13 | 3 | 95 | 987 | 7 | .912 | 2.28 |
|---|
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 | 13 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 10 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 6 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 5 |
| USA Today | 13 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | |||
| Jami Krannila | NCHC Defensive Forward of the Year | [9] |
| Spencer Meier | NCHC Sportsmanship Award | |
| Jami Krannila | NCHC First Team | [10] |
| Jack Peart | NCHC Second Team | [11] |
| Jaxon Castor | NCHC All-Tournament Team | [12] |
| Jack Peart | ||
| Jami Krannila | ||
| Zach Okabe |
| 6 | 179 | Warren Clark † | Tampa Bay Lightning |