The 2023–24 Ohio State Buckeyes men's ice hockey season was the 61st season for the program and 11th season in the Big Ten Conference. The Buckeyes represented the Ohio State University in the 2023-24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Value City Arena and were coached by Steve Rohlik in his 11th season.

Season After falling to the Quinnipiac Bobcats in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Division tournament, the Buckeyes looked to build upon the success they had in previous seasons.

Although the Buckeyes brought in 16 new players through either the transfer portal or out of high school, they still went into the season losing some big names. Among these were goaltender Jakub Dobeš, who had served as the starter for the previous two seasons, and captain Gustaf Westlund. They also lost defensemen Cole McWard and Mason Lohrei to professional contracts. The departures highlighted a successful period in Buckeye hockey in terms of recruitment and regular season success. Among notable additions to the team was transfer Jake Dunlap, who joined his brother Joe Dunlap on the Buckeyes.

As expected, the Buckeyes started off in the middle of the pack in the rankings, being ranked 13th and 15th by USCHO.com and USA Hockey, respectively. Although a 3-1-3 start would allow them be ranked as high as 13th in both polls in Week 4, things would quickly get worse for the Buckeyes from there. Between November 3rd and December 9th, the Buckeyes would only win two games - non-conference games against Princeton. This would drop their record 5-8-4, including a 0-8-2 record in Big Ten play. This slide would knock them out of both USCHO.com and USA Hockey rankings by Week 6.

The Buckeyes would finally register their first season win against a Big Ten opponent on January 12, 2024 against Notre Dame. Unfortunately, this wouldn't spark anything for the team, as they would lose seven straight afterwards, all against Big Ten teams. However, after the losing streak, the Buckeyes would be rattle off three straight upset wins against the #4 ranked team, the first two against the Wisconsin Badgers, and one against the Michigan State Spartans. They would lose the final three games of the season, bringing their regular season record to 12-18-4, and an abysmal 4-18-2 in inter-conference play. It was their worst conference record since they joined the conference and worst since 1994–95.

The Buckeyes, unsurprisingly, entered the 2024 Big Ten tournament as the worst-seeded #7 team, and would face off against #2 seeded Wisconsin, who was ranked #5 overall. The Buckeyes would stun the Badgers and they won the series 2-1, moving on to face the top seeded Spartans. Despite a good effort against the top-seeded Spartans, the Buckeyes would fall 2-1, ending their season.

Departures Mark Cheremeta Forward Transferred to Sacred Heart Jakub Dobeš Goaltender Signed professional contract (Montreal Canadiens) Tyler Duke Defenseman Transferred to Michigan Jaedon Leslie Forward Graduate transfer to Niagara Mason Lohrei Defenseman Signed professional contract (Boston Bruins) James Marooney Defenseman Graduate transfer to St. Thomas Cole McWard Defenseman Signed professional contract (Vancouver Canucks) Evan McIntyre Defenseman Transferred to Augustana C. J. Regula Defenseman Graduate transfer to Rensselaer Kamil Sadlocha Forward Graduation (signed with TH Unia Oświęcim) Tate Singleton Forward Graduation (signed with Toronto Marlies) Ryan Snowden Goaltender Graduation (retired) Travis Treloar Forward Transferred to Quinnipiac Dom Vidoli Defenseman Graduate transfer to Omaha Gustaf Westlund Forward Graduation (signed with IK Oskarshamn) Jake Wise Forward Graduation (signed with Charlotte Checkers)

Recruiting Caden Brown Forward 20 St. Louis, MO; transfer from Wisconsin Damien Carfagna Defenseman 20 Wood Ridge, NJ; transfer from New Hampshire Samuel Deckhut Forward 21 San Diego, CA Jake Dunlap Forward 21 Windham, NH; transfer from New Hampshire Kristoffer Eberly Goaltender 20 Pinckney, MI Ryan Gordon Forward 21 Duluth, GA Riley Hughes Forward 23 Westwood, MA; graduate transfer from Northeastern; selected 216th overall in 2018 Brent Johnson Defenseman 20 Dallas, TX; transfer from North Dakota; selected 80th overall in 2021 Mason Klee Defenseman 23 Morrison, CO; graduate transfer from Rensselaer Nathan McBrayer Defenseman 19 Columbus, OH Max Montes Forward 20 Waukesha, WI William Smith Defenseman 20 Toronto, ON Logan Terness Goaltender 21 Burnaby, BC; transfer from Connecticut Theo Wallberg Defenseman 19 Stockholm, SWE; selected 168th overall in 2022 Thomas Weis Forward 21 Madison, WI

Roster As of July 6, 2023.

Standings

Schedule and results

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

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics C 38 10 26 36 30 D 37 13 13 26 32 F 38 9 17 26 32 D 38 2 19 21 16 F 37 9 9 18 17 C 31 9 7 16 55 C 38 8 7 15 15 F 38 6 8 14 20 D 37 5 8 13 8 C 37 4 7 11 33 LW 34 5 5 10 27 C 24 4 6 10 6 F 13 3 5 8 40 F 33 3 5 8 40 D 34 0 7 7 8 C 29 3 3 6 2 D 34 2 4 6 10 RW 23 1 4 5 19 D 32 1 4 5 22 D 38 1 4 5 25 C 30 1 2 3 4 D 3 1 0 1 6 G 2 0 0 0 0 G 14 0 0 0 0 RW 24 0 0 0 24 G 27 0 0 0 0 Total 100 170 270 464

Goaltending statistics 15 725:25 3 8 1 36 368 0 .911 2.98 27 1529:14 11 12 3 79 741 1 .904 3.10 3 24:27 0 0 0 3 13 0 .813 7.36 Empty Net - 25:32 - - - 6 - - - - Total 38 2304:38 14 20 4 124 1122 1 .900 3.23

Rankings

PollWeekPre1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526 (Final) USCHO.com131413161319NRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NR USA Hockey151413151319NRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR 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 Scooter Brickey Big Ten Second Team

2024 NHL entry draft

5 148 † Detroit Red Wings † incoming freshman

References

External links