The 2023–24 St. Cloud State Huskies men's ice hockey season was the 89th season of play for the program, the 27th at the Division I level and 11th in the NCHC. The Huskies represented St. Cloud State University in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center and were coached by Brett Larson in his sixth season.
Entering the season, St. Cloud was set to have Dominic Basse as the primary starter while returning luminaries like Veeti Miettinen and Zach Okabe were expected to shoulder the load up front. Unfortunately, the Huskies didn't play well to start the season. Basse looked pedestrian in net while the offense struggled to get on track. However, after starting 2–4, St. Cloud picked up its game once conference play began. The Huskies went undefeated in their 8 NCHC matches during the first half of the season and planted themselves firmly atop the standings.[1]
The team's outlook improved after the winter break when they swept Bemidji State to finish with a respectable non-conference record and only had to play well in the second half to give themselves a shot at the NCAA tournament. However, January was not kind to the Huskies; St. Cloud went through a 3-week stretch where they could not buy a win and the team began to see their postseason chances slip away. Basse's play was not up to par and twice the team turned to one of its freshmen goaltenders, but neither was able to seize the job. The Huskies recovered a bit in February, earning splits with both Colorado College and Western Michigan but Basse's poor play eventually led to him being replaced in goal by Isak Posch.
The change in goal seemed to work initially as Posch earned his first career shutout against the Broncos. However, he was less than effective over the final two weeks of the regular season. St. Cloud lost every game largely because they couldn't keep the puck out of the net. Basse was reinserted as the starter for the season finale but he proceeded to allow 6 goals on 30 shots and was back on the bench when the playoffs began. The losses to end the year cost St. Cloud a conference championship and dropped the team to 3rd in the NCHC standings.
Due to their tumble, the Huskies began the postseason facing Western Michigan, who were all but guaranteed a spot in the tournament at the time. Posch shook off his recent struggles and played a solid game while the offense got contributions for up and down the lineup. The combination allowed St. Cloud to take the first game but Western replied with a convincing win of their own in game two. With their season on the line, the Huskies leapt out to a fast start in the rubber match and had a 3-goal lead before the 12-minute mark. Posch stopped 32 of 33 shots to backstop a quarterfinal victory and keep the Huskies' alive.
As they were preparing for Denver in the semifinals, St. Cloud was right on the bubble of the NCAA tournament. Depending on how other games played out, it was possible for the team to earn an at-large bid if they could knock off the Pioneers even though they team was only 2 games above .500. Knowing that a loss would be the death knell for their season, the Huskies fought hard against the nation's top offensive team and tried to beat Denver at its own game. St. Cloud got four separate 1-goal leads in the match but they were unable to pull away from the Pioneers. Overtime was needed to settle the score and both teams fought hard to get the winning goal. Just past the 6-minute mark, Denver got a partial break in on Posch and deke right at the goal caught the netminder out of position. Josh Luedtke tried to sweep the puck away from the goal but he fanned on the attempt and could only watch as it slid into the net and ended their season.[2]
| Chase Brand | Forward | Graduate transfer to Augustana | ||
| Brendan Bushy | Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Kalamazoo Wings) | ||
| Jaxon Castor | Goaltender | Graduation (signed with Florida Everblades) | ||
| Grant Cruikshank | Forward | Graduation (signed with Toronto Marlies) | ||
| Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins) | |||
| Spencer Meier | Defenseman | Graduation (retired) | ||
| Micah Miller | Forward | Graduation (signed with Tucson Roadrunners) | ||
| Aidan Spellacy | Forward | Graduation (signed with Kalamazoo Wings) | ||
| Defenseman | Graduation (signed with SaiPa) | |||
| Brady Ziemer | Defenseman | Transferred to Augustana |
| Warren Clark | Defenseman | 18 | Riverside, ON
| ||
| Tynan Ewart | Defenseman | 21 | Duncan, BC | ||
| Karl Falk | Defenseman | 23 | Värmdö, SWE
| ||
| Tyson Gross | Forward | 20 | Calgary, AB | ||
| Verner Miettinen | Forward | 20 | Espoo, FIN | ||
| Nick Portz | Forward | 23 | St. Cloud, MN
| ||
| Isak Posch | Goaltender | 21 | Umeå, SWE | ||
| Jack Reimann | Forward | 20 | Ham Lake, MN | ||
| Kaleb Tiessen | Defenseman | 21 | Leamington, ON |
As of September 27, 2023.[3]
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 37 | 20 | 15 | 35 | 0 | |||
| 38 | 6 | 27 | 33 | 34 | |||
| 38 | 14 | 18 | 32 | 18 | |||
| 38 | 10 | 18 | 28 | 18 | |||
| 38 | 10 | 14 | 24 | 21 | |||
| 38 | 4 | 19 | 23 | 8 | |||
| 34 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 16 | |||
| 35 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 27 | |||
| 37 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 21 | |||
| 33 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 16 | |||
| 38 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 18 | |||
| 32 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 19 | |||
| 23 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 15 | |||
| 19 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 8 | |||
| 29 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 22 | |||
| 38 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 15 | |||
| 20 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 19 | |||
| 19 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 2 | |||
| 17 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 14 | |||
| 25 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 12 | |||
| 26 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 31 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | |||
| 33 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |||
| 25 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 121 | 204 | 325 | 343 |
|---|
| 1 | 65:00 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 0 | .955 | 0.92 | ||
| 25 | 1461:47 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 67 | 580 | 3 | .896 | 2.75 | ||
| 14 | 777:01 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 38 | 346 | 1 | .901 | 2.93 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 24:13 | - | - | - | 8 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 38 | 2328:01 | 17 | 16 | 5 | 114 | 947 | 4 | .893 | 2.94 |
|---|
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 | 8 | 10 | 20 | NR | NR | NR | 19 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 14 | – | 14 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 18 | 17 | 18 | 18 | – | 18 | |
| USA Hockey | 7 | 9 | 20 | NR | NR | NR | 17 | 16 | 17 | 15 | 15 | 14 | – | 14 | 12т | 14 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 13 | 18 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 18 | |
| Dylan Anhorn | AHCA West Second Team All-American | [6] |
| Dylan Anhorn | NCHC First Team | [7] |
| Jack Peart | NCHC Second Team | [8] |
| Isak Posch | NCHC Rookie Team | [9] |
See main article: 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
| 2 | 48 | † | St. Louis Blues | |
| 4 | 101 | † | Columbus Blue Jackets | |
| 6 | 182 | † | Anaheim Ducks |