2022–23 Maine Black Bears men's ice hockey season

The 2022–23 Maine Black Bears Men's ice hockey season was the 48th season of play for the program, the 46th season competing at the Division I level, and the 39th in the Hockey East conference. The Black Bears represented the University of Maine and played their home games at Alfond Arena, and were coached by Ben Barr, in his 2nd season as head coach.
==Season==
After a very trying season, Maine was looking to get back on track in '23. The first hurdle for the team was dealing with the sheer amount of new faces as more than half of the previous season's players had departed. While the Black Bears would be getting a new starting goaltender, most of their top offensive players were back, which at least gave the team a foundation for this season. Early on, the team performed well and managed to take down #3 Quinnipiac with a rather stunning 4–0 victory. That surprise win, however, was the start of an 8-game stretch where Maine faced all ranked opponents. Unfortunately, the team was unable to win any of the other games and plummeted to the bottom of the conference standings. Several of the games in that stretch were close but the Bears' offense wasn't quite up to par.
The team ended the skid after Thanksgiving and were finally able to find some consistency in their game. They finished out the first half of the season with four consecutive wins but they had a daunting task before them. With little chance to receive an at-large bid, Maine was playing for pride in the second half. With Lynden Breen leading the way, The Black Bears posted several more impressive wins, taking four games from ranked teams. Aside from the three matches against Boston University, Maine looked good even in defeat and managed to climb their way up to 6th in the conference.
The Black Bears entered the postseason in a decent position, facing off against Hockey East bottom-feeder Vermont. Maine got into the lead twice and controlled the game for the first 45 minutes or so. Unfortunately, a strong third period from the Catamounts saw the momentum swing and suddenly the Bears were trailing. Down a goal, Maine got a power play with just under 2 minutes left in regulation. Östman was pulled for an extra attacker to give the Black Bears a de-facto 2-man advantage. However, Vermont managed to score into the empty net and seal the game, ending Maine's season.
==Departures==
Adrien Bisson 	Defenseman		Transferred to Mercyhurst
Simon Butala 	Defenseman		Graduation (retired)
Adam Dawe 	Forward 		Graduate transfer to Connecticut
A. J. Drobot 	Forward 		Left program (retired)
Tim Gould 	Defenseman		Left program (retired)
Edward Lindelöw 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Västerviks IK)
Brad Morrissey 	Forward 		Left program (retired)
Jonny Mulera 	Forward 		Left program (retired)
Tristan Poissant 	Forward 		Left program (retired)
Jack Quinlivan 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Worcester Railers)
Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup	Forward 		Graduate transfer to Clarkson
Cameron Spicer 	Defenseman		Graduation (retired)
Keenan Suthers 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Toronto Marlies)
Matthew Thiessen 	Goaltender		Transferred to Minnesota Duluth
Perry Winfree 	Defenseman		Left program (retired)
Emil Westerlund 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Almtuna IS)
==Recruiting==
Luke Antonacci 	Defenseman		19	Princeton, NJ
Grayson Arnott 	Defenseman		21	Toronto, ON
Brandon Chabrier 	Defenseman		20	Bayville, NY
Samuel Duerr 	Defenseman		20	Chicago, IL
Thomas Freel 	Forward 		21	Aberdeen, SCO
Cole Hanson 	Forward 		22	Grand Forks, ND; transfer from Colgate
Didrik Henbrant 	Forward 		24	Sturefors, SWE; transfer from Alaska
Brandon Holt 	Defenseman		21	Grand Forks, ND
Thomas Killian Kiecker-Olson	Forward 		21	Andover, MN
Robert Kincaid 	Defenseman		20	Barrhead, AB
Parker Lindauer 	Forward 		21	Madison, WI
Michael Mancinelli 	Forward 		21	Northville, MI
Justin Michaelian 	Forward 		24	Wixom, MI; graduate transfer from Ferris State
Jacob Mucitelli 	Goaltender		22	Deerfield, NY; transfer from Clarkson
Reid Pabich 	Forward 		20	Verona, WI
Félix Trudeau 	Forward 		20	Terrebonne, QC
==Roster==
As of July 4, 2022.
==Standings==
==Schedule and results==
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | 
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | 
==Scoring statistics==
 	C 	36	21	15 	36 	22
 	F 	36	9 	17 	26 	27
 	RW 	36	9 	11 	20 	16
 	C 	36	9 	10 	19 	16
 	D 	36	6 	10 	16 	39
 	C/RW	34	7 	8 	15 	24
 	C 	36	2 	13 	15 	27
 	D 	36	1 	12 	13 	14
 	D 	36	3 	9 	12 	10
 	D 	24	4 	7 	11 	2
 	D 	34	2 	9 	11 	25
 	C 	30	1 	10 	11 	6
 	F 	36	6 	4 	10 	22
 	LW 	28	3 	5 	8 	14
 	C 	31	2 	5 	7 	4
 	C 	24	1 	4 	5 	12
 	D 	28	1 	4 	5 	25
 	F 	20	1 	3 	4 	2
 	F 	19	2 	1 	3 	2
 	C 	8 	1 	2 	3 	0
 	D 	22	0 	3 	3 	8
 	D 	19	0 	2 	2 	8
 	G 	33	0 	2 	2 	4
 	LW 	10	1 	0 	1 	0
 	G 	3 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	4 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	8 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	F 	15	0 	0 	0 	4
Total	 	 	92	167	259	333
==Goaltending statistics==
 	33	1874:39	14	12	4	69	773	5	.918	2.21
 	3 	134:27 	0 	1 	1	7 	45 	0	.865	3.12
 	4 	161:29 	1 	3 	0	13	61 	0	.824	4.83
Empty Net	- 	21:25 	- 	- 	-	5 	- 	-	- 	-
Total 	36	2192:00	15	16	5	94	879	5	.903	2.57
==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 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	- 	NR
USA Today	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR
Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 1, 13, or 26.
==References==
2022-23
Category:2022–23 Hockey East men's ice hockey season
Category:2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey by team
Category:2023 in sports in Maine
Category:2022 in sports in Maine