The 2023–24 New Hampshire Wildcats Men's ice hockey season was the 98th season of play for the program and the 40th in Hockey East. The Wildcats represented the University of New Hampshire, played their home games at the Whittemore Center and were coached by Mike Souza in his 6th season.

Season Hoping to continue their strong play from the end of the previous season, New Hampshire began the year with a tough slate by facing preseason #1 Boston University in the opener. Surprisingly, the Wildcats outscored the Terriers and planted their flag early in the year. UNH then earned a split with the defensing national champions, Quinnipiac, but not everything was looking good. Tyler Muszelik had been in goal for all three games and allowed 4 goals in each. Even so, the team was set to continue with the sophomore netminder in goal but he was knocked out of the lineup with a lower body injury in the third week of the season.

Transfer Jakob Hellsten took over in goal and the goaltending results improved immediately. Over the next four games, hardly allowed a goal, albeit against weaker opposition. Hellsten played so well that when Muszelik had recovered the two goalies had to share the crease. This situation only made the difference between the two more stark as Hellsten swiftly proved to be the better of the two. In the meantime, New Hampshire's offense continued to score at an impressive rate. The Wildcats scored at least 3 goals in eight of their first thirteen games and entered the break in a prime position to finally end their NCAA tournament drought.

After the winter break, Muszelik had the worst game of his career, allowing 5 goals on 13 shots against Army. While the Wildcats were good enough at the time to absorb the loss, it was the last real opportunity for Muszelik in goal and Hellsten would start all but one game for the rest of the season. The UNH defense did a good job insulating their goaltender as the Wildcats were the #3 team in the nation in shots allowed (23.5 per game). That assistance helped Hellsten's efforts to keep the puck out of the net, however, the Wildcats began experiencing other troubles.

The offense that had carried the team in the first half of the year suddenly found it difficult to score consistently. UNH squandered several chances to win games by failing to score and went .500 over their final 14 games. Though the team was not helped by that middling stretch, New Hampshire was saved due to the fact that the Hockey East was the top-ranked league in college hockey that year. Even with their up and down play, the Wildcats remained in the top-20 by season's end and still had a small chance at earning an at-large bid.

With UNH starting in the first round of the conference tournament, the team would need to at least make the semifinal round if not the conference championship game to make the tournament. As the 6th seed, the Wildcats opened against last-place Massachusetts Lowell. Hellsten set a new program record by posting his third consecutive shutout which, coincidentally, all came against the River Hawks. The offense was barely visible in the match but New Hampshire would have to hope that that was a one-off and the scoring would return in the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, the trend continued and their long-time rival Maine was more than happy to take advantage. The Wildcats only managed to muster 18 shots on goal and none of them found the back of the net. To make matters worse, UNH was whistled for five penalties in the game and the two power play goals from the Black Bears were more than enough to end New Hampshire's season.

Departures Ryan Black Forward Graduation (retired) Damien Carfagna Defenseman Transferred to Ohio State Nico DeVita Defenseman Transferred to Ferris State Jake Dunlap Forward Transferred to Ohio State Kalle Eriksson Defenseman Graduation (signed with Almtuna IS) David Fessenden Goaltender Graduate transfer to Canisius Joe Hankinson Forward Graduation (retired) Will Margel Forward Transferred to Mercyhurst Cade Penney Defenseman Left program (retired) Chase Stevenson Forward Graduation (retired)

Recruiting Ryan Conmy Forward 18 Alexandria, VA; selected 182nd overall in 2023 Brendan Fitzgerald Defenseman 20 North Reading, MA Zach Hahn Defenseman 21 Huntington, NY Jakob Hellsten Goaltender 23 Ljusdal, SWE; transfer from North Dakota Marty Laviņš Forward 20 Riga, LAT Luis Lindner Defenseman/Forward 22 Spittal an der Drau, AUT; transfer from American International Nick Ring Forward 19 Hingham, MA Jason Siedem Forward 20 Madison, NJ J. P. Turner Forward 20 East Falmouth, MA Ronan Walsh Forward 21 Andover, NH

Roster As of July 10, 2023.

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition

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

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics RW 34 14 17 31 14 F 36 10 18 28 17 F 33 10 12 22 19 D 36 5 17 22 16 F 28 13 7 20 37 F 33 4 12 16 14 D 36 1 15 16 18 C 32 11 3 14 24 C/RW 32 7 7 14 12 C 35 5 9 14 6 D 36 1 13 14 24 C 35 5 7 12 4 F 28 6 5 11 41 C 24 4 6 10 21 F 34 2 8 10 6 D/F 36 0 10 10 2 D 35 4 5 9 12 D 15 1 4 5 0 D 28 0 5 5 44 F 32 0 4 4 8 F 10 1 2 3 2 F 20 1 2 3 0 F 8 1 0 1 0 G 1 0 0 0 0 D 1 0 0 0 0 G 8 0 0 0 0 G 28 0 0 0 0 Total 106 188 294 349

Goaltending statistics 28 1675:11 15 12 1 57 570 5 .909 2.04 8 478:27 3 3 0 27 187 1 .874 3.38 Empty Net - 21:04 - - - 6 - - - - Total 36 2174:57 20 15 1 90 757 6 .894 2.48

Rankings

PollWeekPre 1 234567891011121314151617181920212223242526 (Final) USCHO.comNRNR NR NR 1514т1312151616–17161717181719161718171919–20 USA HockeyNRNR NR NR 1615131014161616–1617161717191717181718191919 Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 11 or 25.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.

Awards and honors Alex Gagne Hockey East Third Team

References