The 2022–23 UMass Lowell River Hawks Men's ice hockey season was the 56th season of play for the program, the 40th competing at the Division I level and 39th in Hockey East. The River Hawks represented the University of Massachusetts Lowell in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, were coached by Norm Bazin in his 12th season and played their home games at Tsongas Center.
Despite a great deal of roster turnover, the River Hawks were expected to compete for the NCAA tournament. While the loss of starter Owen Savory would be difficult to overcome, the addition of grad transfer Gustavs Dāvis Grigals was expected to soften the blow. Grigals did perform well for Lowell while understudy Henry Welsch also shone when given the chance. Unfortunately, the Hawk's offense, which had only been average last year, worsened when the scoring of Andre Lee and Lucas Condotta could not be fully replaced.
Lowell hovered around the .500 mark for most of the season but stayed on the positive side the entire time. Early on, that served the team well as Hockey East sat high in the rankings. Even with just an okay record of 10–6–1, Lowell was above the cutoff line for the NCAA tournament when they stopped for the winter break. The team's chances was dealt a heavy blow upon their return to the ice when they were swept at home by Alaska Anchorage, a team that was playing its first hockey in nearly three years. Lowell dropped 13 places in the rankings, settling in the high-20s and needed a strong second half to recover. They started out well, going 5–1 in their next six games but the River Hawks slumped in the later portion of the season, winning just 2 out of their final 9 matches. To make matters worse, seemingly the entire conference fell apart in the second half of the year and Lowell received less credit for their wins as time went on.
By the end of the regular season, Lowell was sitting well outside of the NCAA bubble and would likely need to win the Hockey East championship to make an appearance. While the team was fortunate enough to receive a bye into the conference quarterfinals, they still had to travel for their match. The River Hawks met Connecticut, who were also fighting for their postseason lives, and the team had a tall task to reach the semifinals. Luckily, Lowell got off to a good start and scored twice in the first period. Carrying a 2–0 lead into the second, the Hawks played defense the rest of the game, only getting 5 shots on goal, but the maneuver worked and UMass Lowell escaped with a 2–1 win. In the next round, Merrimack too had to win to keep their season alive and Warriors showed great desperation early in the game. Merrimack outshot Lowell 22–7 in the first 40 minutes but, thanks to a stellar effort from Grigals, neither team was able to score. The Warriors finally broke through with about 10 minutes to play and caused Lowell to throw caution to the wind and begin their own attack. The River Hawk offense finally showed some life and were able to get the tying goal with just 31 second left in regulation. Lowell continued to get their chances once overtime began but could not beat Zachary Borgiel. In third minutes of extra hockey, UML outshot Merrimack 19–12 but it was the Warriors who managed to nab the game-winner and Lowell would have to wait for another year.[1]
| Matt Allen | Forward | Transferred to Alaska Anchorage | ||
| Nick Austin | Defenseman | Graduation (retired) | ||
| Lucas Condotta | Forward | Graduation (signed with Montreal Canadiens) | ||
| Matt Kinash | Forward | Transferred to Alaska Anchorage | ||
| Sam Knoblauch | Forward | Graduation (retired) | ||
| Josh Latta | Forward | Transferred to Bentley | ||
| Andre Lee | Forward | Signed professional contract (Los Angeles Kings) | ||
| Owen Savory | Goaltender | Graduation (signed with Laval Rocket) | ||
| Jordan Schulting | Defenseman | Transferred to Bentley | ||
| Connor Sodergren | Forward | Graduation (retired) | ||
| Reid Stefanson | Forward | Graduation (signed with Maine Mariners) | ||
| Jackson Sterrett | Forward | Left program (retired) |
| Mitchell Becker | Defenseman | 21 | Rogers, MN | ||
| Dillan Bentley | Forward | 21 | Peoria, IL | ||
| Jack Collins | Forward | 20 | Canton, NY | ||
| Mark Cooper | Defenseman | 21 | Dunnville, ON | ||
| Filip Fornåå Svensson | Forward | 23 | Linköping, SWE
| ||
| Owen Fowler | Forward | 20 | Tewksbury, MA | ||
| Gustavs Dāvis Grigals | Goaltender | 24 | Riga, LAT
| ||
| Nick Rhéaume | Forward | 20 | Sherbrooke, QC | ||
| T. J. Schweighardt | Defenseman | 21 | Wayne, NJ | ||
| Jake Stella | Forward | 23 | Karlstad, SWE
| ||
| Roc Truman | Forward | 21 | Lethbridge, AB | ||
| Scout Truman | Forward | 19 | Lethbridge, AB |
As of September 14, 2022.[2] |}
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" |
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 36 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 12 | |||
| 35 | 3 | 17 | 20 | 14 | |||
| 28 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 12 | |||
| 34 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 6 | |||
| 34 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 43 | |||
| 30 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 10 | |||
| 34 | 8 | 6 | 14 | 10 | |||
| 33 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 6 | |||
| 36 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 4 | |||
| 28 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 12 | |||
| 33 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 18 | |||
| 31 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 16 | |||
| 24 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 12 | |||
| 36 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 32 | |||
| 22 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | |||
| 34 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 29 | |||
| 36 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 14 | |||
| 27 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | |||
| 22 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |||
| 21 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 8 | |||
| 26 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 18 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 12 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 19 | |||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 89 | 150 | 239 | 281 |
|---|
| 24 | 1406:28 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 48 | 586 | 2 | .924 | 2.05 | ||
| 16 | 774:07 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 29 | 318 | 2 | .916 | 2.25 | ||
| 1 | 20:00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | .667 | 6.00 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 20:14 | - | - | - | 3 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 36 | 2220:49 | 18 | 15 | 3 | 82 | 908 | 4 | .917 | 2.22 |
|---|
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 | 17 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 15 | 16 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 14 | 13 | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | 17 | 16 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | NR | NR | 20 | NR | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | NR |
| USA Today | 16 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 20 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 15 | 20 | 19 | 20 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | |||
| Gustavs Dāvis Grigals | Hockey East Third Team | [5] |
| Jon McDonald | ||