2023–24 Colorado College Tigers men's ice hockey season

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.

Season After narrowly missing out on a conference championship the year before, the team's goaltending situation was addressed by returning starter Kaidan Mbereko. The team's biggest task was to improve its scoring. Having had one of the lowest-scoring offenses in the nation in '23, Colorado College entered this season by losing its top scorer and more than a quarter of its goals. The team needed to see improvements from across the board to end its decade-plus of losing seasons. 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 boost from Gleb Veremyev who appeared to be recovered from a torn ACL.

The team looked strong in October, beginning the season 5–0 for the first time since 2005. 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.

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. 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.

Departures Cade Ahrenholz Forward Transferred to Alaska Brett Chorske Forward Transferred to Colgate Patrick Cozzi Forward Graduation (retired) Matthew Gleason Forward Transferred to St. Thomas Hunter McKown 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)

Recruiting 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; selected 224th overall in 2022 Evan Werner Forward 20 Flower Mound, TX Henry Wilder Goaltender 22 Needham, MA; transfer from Boston College Zaccharya Wisdom Forward 19 Toronto, ON; selected 212th overall in 2023

Roster As of July 24, 2023.

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition

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

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics C 36 20 17 37 27 C 37 15 13 28 55 RW 33 10 10 20 22 C 34 3 17 20 26 F 37 6 13 19 10 F 37 7 11 18 12 D 37 3 14 17 29 D 32 2 14 16 6 D 37 7 9 16 6 RW 35 4 11 15 6 C 37 5 9 14 14 D 37 4 8 12 24 F 35 5 5 10 12 C/LW 19 4 6 10 10 F 36 4 4 8 8 F 36 2 5 7 15 D 37 2 3 5 16 F 24 5 0 5 10 D 37 0 5 5 24 F 19 1 2 3 11 C 6 1 0 1 0 D 17 1 0 1 8 D 2 0 0 0 0 G 3 0 0 0 0 G 37 0 0 0 0 F 5 0 0 0 2 Total 111 176 287 361

Goaltending statistics 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

Rankings

PollWeekPre 1 234567891011121314151617181920212223242526 (Final) USCHO.comNR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR 20–20171816141515101110101215–15 USA HockeyNR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR 2020–1818171615161014121013151515 Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 11 and 25.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.

Awards and honors Kaidan Mbereko AHCA West First Team All-American Noah Laba AHCA West Second Team All-American Kaidan Mbereko NCHC Goaltender of the Year Noah Laba NCHC Defensive Forward of the Year Noah Laba NCHC Three Stars Award Kris Mayotte Herb Brooks Coach of the Year Kaidan Mbereko NCHC First Team Noah Laba

2024 NHL entry draft

7 208 † Detroit Red Wings † incoming freshman

References