The 2022–23 UMass Minutemen ice hockey season was the 91st season of play for the program, the 30th at the Division I level, and 29th in

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

. The Minutemen represented the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

in the

2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season The 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season began on October 1, 2022, and concluded with the NCAA championship on April 8, 2023. This was the 75th season in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held, and was US college hockey's 12 ...

were coached by

Greg Carvel Gregory Joseph Carvel (born August 17, 1970) is an American former NCAA ice hockey player and current coach. He is currently the head coach for the UMass Minutemen of the Hockey East conference. Carvel has been a head coach at St Lawrence Unive ...

in his 7th season, and played their home games at

Mullins Center The William D. Mullins Memorial Center, also known as the Mullins Center, is a 9,493-seat multi-purpose arena (10,500 for 360 concerts), located on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, Ma ...

Season

In the offseason, Garrett Wait suffered a potentially career-ending knee injury during a workout. He was medically disqualified from playing during the 2022–23 season. Beside Wait, the Minumemen would have to deal with the loss of several key players as their leaders on offense ( Bobby Trivigno), defense (

Matthew Kessel Matthew James Kessel (born June 23, 2000) is an American professional ice hockey defenseman for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). Early life Kessel was born on June 23, 2000 in Arizona, USA to parents Tom and Leila Kessel. ...

) and in goal ( Matt Murray) all had to be replaced. Coach Carvel brought in a talent-laden recruiting class to do just that with 4 freshmen who were already

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

draft picks as well as two drafted transfers. UMass was ranked highly entering the season, making the top 10 in both polls and was picked to finish 3rd in

. Early on, everything looked to be going well for the Minutemen. After an iffy start, the team swept the defending national champions,

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, and were undefeated through their first 6 games. An overtime loss to Merrimack dented their record slightly but by the beginning of November, UMass was in the top-5 and seemingly well on their way to another NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, once the team got into conference play, the defense began to falter. Massachusetts was unable to provide its netminders with much support, allowing more than 34 shots against per game. The increased opportunities turned into goals and, despite having a nearly identical save percentage, the Minutemen allowed 15 more goals against in 2 fewer games. While those numbers weren't disastrous by themselves, the team had also declined on the offensive side. None of the team's players were able to make up for the loss of its top three forwards and just one player was able to get into double-digit goal totals. The team scored 23 fewer goals than the year before, putting them at a -38 goal differential. Despite the trouble, UMass recovered during the holidays and held a winning record in early January. At the Frozen Fenway, the team began a 6-game losing streak and dropped out of the polls for the first time in years. They were able to recover to finish out the final 8 games at a .500 clip. The Minutemen had done so poorly in their conference games that the team finished 9th in the standings and were forced to start in the first round. They faced

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

in a battle between two disappointing teams. UMass hardly put up a fight, getting outshot 18–42 and ending its season with a 2–5 loss.

Departures

Recruiting

Roster

As of August 6, 2022.

Standings

Schedule and results

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Scoring statistics

Goaltending statistics

Rankings

Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 1, 13, or 26.

Players drafted into the NHL

2023 NHL Entry Draft

† incoming freshman

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:UMass Minutemen ice hockey season 2022-23 2022–23 Hockey East men's season 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey by team 2022 in sports in Massachusetts 2023 in sports in Massachusetts