The 2023–24 Colorado College Tigers men's ice hockey season was the 84th season of play for the program and the 11th in the NCHC. The Tigers represented Colorado College in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at the Ed Robson Arena and were coached by Kris Mayotte, in his 3rd season.
After narrowly missing out on a surprise conference championship the year before, there was a sense of renewed hope for the program. With the goaltending situation presumably taken care of, thanks to returning starter Kaidan Mbereko, the biggest task for CC was to fix its scoring woes. Having had one of the worst offenses in the nation in '23, Colorado College entered this season by losing it top scorer and more than a quarter of its goals. The Tigers would need to see improvements from across the board if they wanted to end their decade-plus of losing hockey and that's exactly what they received. Noah Laba, who had finished second in scoring the year before, took over as the primary threat for the Tigers and became a 20-goal scorer for CC. The team also got a huge boost from Gleb Veremyev who looked to be completely recovered from a torn ACL.[1]
The team looked strong in October, beginning the season 5–0 for the first time since 2005.[2] However, the next month proved that the team still had some problems to fix. The Tigers slumped over a 9-game span, only managing to win two games against Miami, the worst team in the conference. Mbereko was a little shaky during the stretch but it was the lack of offense that doomed CC. In the six games they played against ranked teams, the Tigers managed just 5 goals and were shutout twice. If Colorado College had any pretentions of being a contender for the NCAA tournament they would have to find a way to win against good teams.
Just before the winter break, CC travelled up to face North Dakota who was then the #1 team in the country. Defying their recent struggles, Colorado College overcame a 2-goal deficit to win in overtime thanks to Laba's 7th of the season. The Tigers appeared to be strengthened by the win and fought even harder in the rematch, this time with Veremyev netting the winning goal. As the team headed into its mid-season vacation, the road sweep of the Fighting Hawks completely altered the fortunes of the Tigers. Upon the team's return to the ice, Mbereko found a new level and become one of the top goaltenders in the nation. From mid-January through early March, Mbereko allowed more than 2 goals in just two games and his stellar play enabled the team to go 9–2–2 in that span.
CC rocketed up the rankings and at the end of the regular season, they were sitting 11th in the PairWise. With the club all but guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament, all the Tigers needed to do was win their semifinal match against Omaha and they'd make their first postseason appearance since 2011. However, the Mavericks were also playing for the lives and played desperate in the first game. CC found itself down by 3 goals in the second period but a stellar game from their special teams enabled the Tigers to tie the game and win it in overtime. After Omaha countered with a win in the rematch, the season came down to the deciding game three. Klāvs Veinbergs got CC a lead in the first but the rest of the offense was silent in the game. Despite a strong defensive effort, Omaha took the lead in the third and Colorado College was unable to respond.[3]
Despite the loss, the Tigers still had a chance to make the NCAA tournament. They had dropped to 14th in the PairWise but that was still good enough to receive an at-large bid if events broke their way over the final weekend. All the Tigers needed was for either Quinnipiac to win the ECAC Hockey title, North Dakota to win the NCHC title, or Boston College to lose in the Hockey East championship game and, so long as there were no other upsets, the Tigers would make the field of 16.[4] Unfortunately, none of those events came to pass. Both Quinnipiac and North Dakota lost in their respective semifinal games while Boston College won their championship. The final rankings put Massachusetts .0004 points ahead of CC for the last spot in the tournament and left the Tigers out in the cold.
| Cade Ahrenholz | Forward | Transferred to Alaska | ||
| Brett Chorske | Forward | Transferred to Colgate | ||
| Patrick Cozzi | Forward | Graduation (retired) | ||
| Matthew Gleason | Forward | Transferred to St. Thomas | ||
| Forward | Signed professional contract (Columbus Blue Jackets) | |||
| Noah Prokop | Forward | Graduate transfer to St. Thomas | ||
| Chad Sasaki | Defenseman | Graduation (retired) | ||
| Nate Schweitzer | Defenseman | Transferred to Lake Superior State | ||
| Matt Vernon | Goaltender | Graduation (signed with Reading Royals) | ||
| Bryan Yoon | Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Utah Grizzlies) |
| Max Burkholder | Defenseman | 20 | Chaska, MN | ||
| Tyler Dunbar | Defenseman | 19 | Sault Ste. Marie, MI | ||
| Antonio Fernandez | Defenseman | 19 | San Jose, CA | ||
| Bret Link | Forward | 21 | Anchorage, AK | ||
| Drew Montgomery | Forward | 20 | Grand Forks, ND | ||
| Riley Stuart | Forward | 21 | Phoenix, AZ | ||
| Klāvs Veinbergs | Forward | 20 | Riga, LAT
| ||
| Evan Werner | Forward | 20 | Flower Mound, TX | ||
| Henry Wilder | Goaltender | 22 | Needham, MA
| ||
| Zaccharya Wisdom | Forward | 19 | Toronto, ON
|
As of July 24, 2023.[5]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 36 | 20 | 17 | 37 | 27 | |||
| 37 | 15 | 13 | 28 | 55 | |||
| 33 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 22 | |||
| 34 | 3 | 17 | 20 | 26 | |||
| 37 | 6 | 13 | 19 | 10 | |||
| 37 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 12 | |||
| 37 | 3 | 14 | 17 | 29 | |||
| 32 | 2 | 14 | 16 | 6 | |||
| 37 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 6 | |||
| 35 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 6 | |||
| 37 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 14 | |||
| 37 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 24 | |||
| 35 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 12 | |||
| 19 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 10 | |||
| 36 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 | |||
| 36 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 15 | |||
| 37 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 16 | |||
| 24 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 10 | |||
| 37 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 24 | |||
| 19 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11 | |||
| 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 17 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | |||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| Total | 111 | 176 | 287 | 361 |
|---|
| 37 | 2227:17 | 21 | 13 | 3 | 89 | 959 | 0 | .915 | 2.40 | ||
| 4 | 18:30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0 | .923 | 3.24 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 15:19 | - | - | - | 3 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 37 | 2261:06 | 21 | 13 | 3 | 93 | 971 | 0 | .913 | 2.47 |
|---|
See main article: 2023–24 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 (Final) | ||
| USCHO.com | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 20 | – | 20 | 17 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 15 | – | 15 | |
| USA Today | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 20 | 20 | – | 18 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 15 | |
| Kaidan Mbereko | AHCA West First Team All-American | [8] |
| Noah Laba | AHCA West Second Team All-American | [9] |
| Kaidan Mbereko | NCHC Goaltender of the Year | [10] |
| Noah Laba | NCHC Defensive Forward of the Year | [11] |
| Noah Laba | NCHC Three Stars Award | [12] |
| Kris Mayotte | Herb Brooks Coach of the Year | [13] |
| Kaidan Mbereko | NCHC First Team | [14] |
| Noah Laba | ||
See main article: 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
| 7 | 208 | † | Detroit Red Wings |