The 2022–23 Northern Michigan Wildcats men's ice hockey season was the 47th season of play for the program and 25th season in the CCHA. The Wildcats represented Northern Michigan University in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season. They were coached by Grant Potulny, in his 6th season, and played their home games at Berry Events Center.

Season After a solid season the year before, Northern Michigan came into the season ranked for the first time in years and had some decent results early. The Wildcats slipped at the end of October, however, losing 4 out of 5 games which included a loss to Alaska Anchorage who were playing their first games in almost 3 years. NMU arrested their slide in November in part by sticking with freshman netminder Béni Halász in goal. The other issue for the club was trying to reform the offense after the loss of Hank Crone, their leading scorer from the year before. Slowly, the team got used to one another and the new additions were assimilated into coach Potulny's system.

Northern Michigan finished out the first half of their season with a decent record which included splits against both Minnesota State and Michigan Tech. Unfortunately, after returning from the winter break, both the offense and defense struggled. The Wildcats lost 6 out of 7 and tumbled down the standings. By the time February rolled around, the team was in the bottom half of the CCHA standings and had no chance for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Luckily, the Wildcats ended the season with a fairly easy slate of opponents and were able to take full advantage.

After settling down on the back end, the NMU offense exploded against Ferris State, scoring 17 goals in one weekend. Entering the final week of the season, the suddenly-hot Wildcats had a long-shot chance at a homestand in the postseason. First, they needed to take as many points as they could from Bowling Green. The team had to overcome early deficits in both matches but were able to come away with a pair of 4–2 victories. In the meantime, Bemidji State was only able to earn a split and the two teams ended the regular season with 39 points. Luckily for NMU, the Wildcats possessed the tiebreaker and would host the Beavers for the quarterfinal round.

Northern Michigan's inspired play continued into the postseason and, after trading goals with BSU, the Wildcats scored the final 4 with goals from Joey Larson, Mikey Colella, Andre Ghantous, and Michael Van Unen to walk away with a win in game 1. Bemidji State responded with a strong effort in the rematch but Halász was equal to the task and allowed just one goal on 36 shots. Regulation ended with a 1–1 tie and immediately after the start of overtime the Wildcats were in attack mode. NMU fired three shots on goal in 67 seconds with David Keefer finding the twine. Northern Michigan advanced to the semifinal where they met long-time rival, Michigan Tech. NMU entered the match having lost the last three to the Huskies but erased that memory by scoring three times in the first thanks to Michael Van Unen, Andre Ghantous, and Rylan Van Unen. After that, Halász had to weather a barrage of shots from Tech but he was up to the task and turned everything aside. A late goal by New York Rangers prospect Simon Kjellberg extended their lead but by then the game was well in hand and Northern Michigan skated away with a 4–0 victory.

The Wilcdats reached a conference championship game for the third time under Potulny but were still searching for their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2010. Halász continued his shutout streak and held Minnesota State scoreless through most of the game. Alex Frye scored a pair of goals to stake the Wildcats to a 2–0 lead and all signs were pointing to their winning the title. With less than 3 minutes remaining, everything began to unravel when Ondrej Pavel and the Mavericks cut the lead in half while their goaltender was pulled. MSU Forward Christian Fitzgerald completed the comeback with their second extra-attacker goal with less than a minute left in regulation. Now, with all of the momentum having swung towards the Mavericks, NMU could only watch as Minnesota State went on the attack in overtime and Zach Krajnik ended the Wildcats season after just 68 seconds.

Departures Mack Byers Forward Transferred to St. Thomas Trevor Cosgrove Defenseman Graduation (signed with Bridgeport Islanders) Hank Crone Forward Graduation (signed with Allen Americans) Hampus Eriksson Forward Graduation (signed with Pioneers Vorarlberg) Tim Erkkila Defenseman Left program (retired) Oscar Geschwind Forward Transferred to American International Bo Hanson Defenseman Graduation (signed with Wheeling Nailers) Nolan Kent Goaltender Graduate transfer to Alaska Anchorage Garrett Klee Forward Graduation (signed with Kansas City Mavericks) Ian Malcolmson Forward Left program (retired) Connor Marritt Forward Transferred to Alaska Anchorage Joseph Nardi Forward Graduation (signed with Manitoba Moose) Ben Newhouse Defenseman Graduation (signed with HC Pustertal Wölfe)

Recruiting Isack Bandu Defenseman 21 Notre-Dame-de-l'Île-Perrot, QC Nathan Butler Forward 20 Wylie, TX Connor Eddy Forward 20 Victoria, BC Aiden Gallacher Defenseman 22 Rochester Hills, MI; transfer from Michigan State Luke Gramer Defenseman 20 Moorhead, MN Béni Halász Goaltender 21 Budapest, HUN Simon Kjellberg Defenseman 22 Nashville, TN; transfer from Rensselaer; selected 163rd overall in 2018 Joey Larson Forward 21 Brighton, MI Tanner Latsch Forward 20 Muskegon, MI Zach Michaelis Forward 20 Elk River, MN Kristóf Papp Forward 21 Budapest, HUN; transfer from Michigan State Artem Shlaine Forward 20 Moscow, RUS; transfer from Connecticut Josh Zinger Defenseman 21 Red Deer, AB

Roster As of September 8, 2022.

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics RW 38 13 25 38 32 C 35 13 19 32 33 C 38 11 21 32 18 RW 36 13 14 27 14 C 38 11 15 26 21 RW 38 15 10 25 8 F 37 7 11 18 25 C 38 6 12 18 16 D 38 3 13 16 12 D 32 4 10 14 24 C 35 4 6 10 14 F 34 7 2 9 22 D 36 3 5 8 36 D 38 2 5 7 39 C 23 1 6 7 21 D 32 1 5 6 10 D 23 2 3 5 8 F 14 4 0 4 17 F 13 1 3 4 6 C 15 1 1 2 2 C 16 1 1 2 10 G 35 0 2 2 0 D 28 0 1 1 12 G 2 0 0 0 0 D 3 0 0 0 2 F 5 0 0 0 7 G 5 0 0 0 0 D 9 0 0 0 6 D 14 0 0 0 4 Total 123 190 313 407

Goaltending statistics 35 1941:24 19 15 0 75 855 3 .919 2.32 8 256:01 2 1 0 13 111 0 .895 3.05 3 74:13 0 1 0 5 33 0 .868 4.04 Empty Net - 22:37 - - - 10 - - - - Total 38 2294:15 21 17 0 103 999 3 .890 2.69

Rankings

PollWeekPre12345678910111213141516171819202122232425 26 27 (Final) USCHO.comNR-NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR-NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR-NR USA Today 20 20 NR 20 NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 1, 13, or 26.

Awards and honors André Ghantous CCHA Second Team Béni Halász CCHA Rookie Team Josh Zinger Joey Larson

Players drafted into the NHL 2023 NHL entry draft 4 118 Hampton Slukynsky + Los Angeles Kings 5 152 Rasmus Larsson + New York Rangers + incoming freshman

References