2022–23 Alaska Nanooks men's ice hockey season

The 2022–23 Alaska Nanooks men's ice hockey season was the 73rd season of play for the program and the 38th at the Division I level. The Nanooks represented the University of Alaska Fairbanks and were coached by Erik Largen in his 4th season.
==Season==
With nearly half of the team's roster changing in the offseason, Alaska was a mystery when the season began. Senior transfer Matt Radomsky was given control of the crease but the rest of the team would take some time to sort out. Unsurprisingly, it took the offense a while to build some chemistry as the Nanooks averaged slightly more than 2 goals per game over the first two months of the season. That wasn't much improvement over the year before, however, whereas they had started out 1–12 the previous season, the 2023 Nanooks were in a much better position. The defense, led by co-captain Garrett Pyke, did a tremendous job insulating Radomsky and allowed an average of less than 25 shots against per game. The relatively light workload and Radomsky's strong play helped keep the team afloat in the early part of the season and they held a .500 record by mid-November.
Just before Thanksgiving, Alaska travelled south to take on #7 Penn State. Though they lost both games, each defeat was only by a single goal and demonstrated that the Nanooks could compete with the college hockey elite. After the winter break Alaska fulfilled that promise by splitting two consecutive weekends against ranked opponents, including then-#1 Denver. With a winning record and several impressive wins, the Nanooks were suddenly alive for the NCAA tournament berth, having risen up to 22nd in the national rankings. After a couple of weeks off, Alaska entered the stretch run of its season with 12 games remaining. Alaska had a fairly easy slate of games but this left them with catch-22; because they weren't going to participate in a conference tournament, Alaska would have to be at least #15 in the national rankings to make the NCAA tournament. To do that they needed to win, however, they wouldn't get much credit for wins over low-ranked teams. Of all their opponents in those final 12 games, only Arizona State was above 50 (out of 61 teams) and they were still in the bottom half. Because of this,Alaska would likely need to go undefeated, or very close to, to have any chance of getting into the top 15. With little room for error, that's exactly what the Nanooks did.
Over a 6-week span, Alaska's offense came into its own and helped the team go 11–1 to end the regular season. The streak gave the team its first 20-win season in 21 years and raised them up to #12 in the rankings. However, when the team finished its schedule on March 4, many other clubs still had games to play. Alaska had to wait and see how the rest of the teams fared before they could punch their ticket to the tournament. By mid-March they had been overtaken by Minnesota State and, as the conference tournaments progressed, they were pushed down to #15. Entering championship weekend, Alaska was in the final position for an at-large bid but were in a relatively good position. For various reasons, the winners of the Atlantic Hockey, Big Ten and CCHA tournaments would not affect the Nanooks. What Alaska needed was for each of the ECAC Hockey, Hockey East and NCHC to be won by a team that was ranked higher than the Nanooks. While Hockey East and the NCHC obliged, Colgate stunned three higher-seeded teams to capture the ECAC crown. That upset shrunk the at-large field to the top-14 teams, leaving Alaska out in the cold.
In spite of the misfortune at the end, this was still the best season for the Nanooks in 35 years, the final season of the Great West Hockey Conference.
==Departures==
Jakob Breault 	Forward 		Left program (retired)
Antonio Di Paolo 	Defenseman		Left program (retired)
Filip Fornåå Svensson	Forward 		Transferred to Massachusetts Lowell
Gustavs Dāvis Grigals	Goaltender		Graduate transfer to Massachusetts Lowell
Didrik Henbrant 	Forward 		Transferred to Maine
Caleb Hite 	Forward 		Graduation (retired)
Kristaps Jākobsons 	Defenseman		Left program (retired)
Roberts Kaļķis 	Defenseman		Signed professional contract (Iisalmen Peli-Karhut)
Matt McKim 	Forward 		Transferred to Acadia
Riley Murphy 	Forward 		Left program (retired)
Jordan Muzzillo 	Defenseman		Graduation (signed with Wichita Thunder)
Austin Ryman 	Goaltender		Transferred to Bethel
Nátán Vertes 	Forward 		Signed professional contract (Fehérvár AV19)
Antti Virtanen 	Defenseman		Graduation (signed with Tappara)
==Recruiting==
Braden Birnie 	Forward 		21	Weyburn, SK
Kyle Gaffney 	Forward 		21	Plymouth, MI
Will Hilfiker 	Defenseman		21	Middletown, NJ
Xavier Jean-Louis	Defenseman		21	Miami, FL
Ricards Landmanis	Defenseman		20	Ventspils, LAT
Lassi Lehti 	Goaltender		20	Espoo, FIN
T. J. Lloyd 	Defenseman		22	Lloydminster, SK; transfer from Bowling Green
A. J. Macaulay 	Defenseman		20	Bonnyville, AB
Cade Neilson 	Forward 		21	Lafayette, LA
Matteo Pecchia 	Forward 		22	Nobleton, ON; transfer from Western Michigan
Zachary Power 	Forward 		21	Glencoe, ON
Matt Radomsky 	Goaltender		23	Winnipeg, MB; transfer from Holy Cross
Quinn Rudrud 	Forward 		21	Farmington, MN
Jonny Sorenson 	Forward 		22	St. Louis Park, MN; transfer from Minnesota
==Roster==
As of August 12, 2022.
==Standings==
==Schedule and results==
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
==Scoring statistics==
 	F 	34	10 	18 	28 	19
 	F 	34	9 	19 	28 	6
 	F 	33	13 	10 	23 	22
 	F 	34	11 	11 	22 	6
 	D 	34	4 	15 	19 	40
 	F 	33	5 	12 	17 	22
 	D 	34	3 	13 	16 	10
 	C 	34	9 	6 	15 	12
 	F 	33	5 	8 	13 	13
 	F 	34	5 	7 	12 	33
 	RW	32	9 	2 	11 	8
 	D 	34	3 	8 	11 	16
 	D 	34	3 	8 	11 	79
 	F 	19	3 	6 	9 	24
 	C 	27	3 	6 	9 	6
 	D 	33	2 	7 	9 	12
 	LW	29	1 	7 	8 	83
 	D 	31	3 	2 	5 	24
 	F 	16	2 	3 	5 	19
 	D 	13	0 	3 	3 	4
 	C 	18	0 	2 	2 	8
 	C 	5 	1 	0 	1 	4
 	D 	5 	0 	1 	1 	0
 	G 	34	0 	1 	1 	0
 	G 	1 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	2 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	4 	0 	0 	0 	5
 	LW	4 	0 	0 	0 	2
Total	 	 	104	175	279	477
==Goaltending statistics==
 	34	1992:08	22	10	2	68	742	2	.916	2.05
 	2 	40:06 	0 	0 	0	2 	13 	0	.867	2.99
 	1 	10:47 	0 	0 	0	1 	5 	0	.833	5.56
Empty Net	- 	16:59 	- 	- 	-	3 	- 	-	- 	-
Total 	34	2060:00	22	10	2	74	760	2	.911	2.16
==Rankings==
Poll 	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week
Poll 	Pre 	1 	2 	3 	4 	5 	6 	7 	8 	9 	10 	11 	12 	13 	14 	15 	16 	17 	18 	19 	20 	21 	22 	23 	24 	25 	26 	27 (Final)
USCHO.com	NR 	- 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	- 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	20 	NR 	NR 	18 	16 	15 	15 	- 	
USA Today	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	19 	15 	15 	15 	15 	
Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 1, 13, or 26.
==References==
2022–23
Alaska
Alaska
Alaska
Alaska