2022–23 Holy Cross Crusaders men's ice hockey season

The 2022–23 Holy Cross Crusaders men's ice hockey season was the 57th season of play for the program, the 25th at the Division I level, and the 19th in the Atlantic Hockey conference. The Crusaders represented the College of the Holy Cross and were coached by Bill Riga, in his 2nd season.
==Season==
Due in part to having to find a new starting goaltender, Holy Cross got off to a poor start. The Crusaders won just 2 out of their first 15 games. By the end of November, the team was one of the worst clubs in college hockey both on offense and defense. The Crusaders had scored more then 2 goals in a game on just 2 occasions, which coincidentally were their only wins to that point. Jason Grand got a third turn in goal as the team's starter and that seemed to work like a charm. Beginning with their match against New Hampshire, the Crusaders suddenly found life and won three games in a row. Their inspired play continued and the club lost just once over an 8-game stretch. On offense, Jack Ricketts began taking over as the team's primary scorer and, seemingly overnight, Holy Cross was managing to score goals as well.
Though there were some hiccups, Holy Cross posted a winning record over the second half of the season and crept up to 7th in the conference standings. The Crusaders faced American International in the quarterfinals, who had won every league championship over the previous 4 seasons. After dropping the opening game, Holy Cross was facing the end of their season when the Yellow Jackets score the first two goals of the rematch. Just before the end of the second, Liam McLinskey scored to cut the lead in half and began a run of 4 consecutive goals from the Crusaders. McLinskey notched the last of those markers which turned out to be the game-winner after AIC potted a third goal after pulling their goalie. McLinskey again opened CHC's scoring in the deciding game before AIC and the Crusader power play began to trade goals. A scoreless third period ended with the score tied 3–3 but Holy Cross was controlling the pace of the game. The Crusaders continued to press in overtime and attacked the AIC cage. Eventually McLinskey managed to stop a clearing attempt and then scored off of a rebound to quiet a nearly empty arena. 
Holy Cross had made the conference semifinal for the first time since 2006 and their reward was facing the best team in the conference, RIT. In front of a much more boisterous and hostile crowd, Jason Grande had probably the best game of his career and stopped all 36 shots from the Tigers in regulation. The Crusaders, on the other hand, were limited to just 7 shots in the first two periods but began to warm up in the third. They more than doubled their shot total in the final 20 minutes but were unable to score themselves, sending the Crusaders into overtime once more. The play was a little more even in the extra session and, 8 minutes into the frame, Liam McLinskey got behind the defense and broke in alone on the RIT cage. After a deke, he slid the puck into the Tiger net for his sixth goal of the postseason and third consecutive game-winning goal.
Ordinarily, that goal would have sent Holy Cross to the title game, however, Atlantic Hockey had changed their postseason format that year and converted the semifinal round into a best-of-three series. Despite the reprieve for RIT, McLinskey gave the Crusaders a lead in the second game after scoring twice during a 5-on-3 power play. RIT was able to push Holy Cross into overtime yet again but this time the Crusaders came out on the losing end. While the series was tied, Holy Cross didn't panic and scored twice in the first period of the deciding game. RIT cut into the lead in the second but the Crusaders reestablished their 2-goal advantage before the start of the third. The defense held firm over the last 20 minutes, stifling the Tigers and preventing them from getting a second goal. When RIT pulled their goaltender, all that served to do was give the Crusaders an empty net to shoot at and they scored twice more, the last being McLinskey's 9th of the postseason, to cap a huge upset over the heavily-favored Tigers.
With Holy Cross 1 win away from their first league championship in 17 years, The Crusaders ran into the only goalie in the conference as hot as Jason Grande. No matter how hard they tried, the Crusaders could not get a puck past Jacob Barczewski. Even after pulling Grand for an extra attacker, CHC was unable to score and lost the championship game 0–3.
==Departures==
Daniel Colabufo	Forward 		Transferred to Oswego State
Bryce Dolan 	Defenseman		Graduation (retired)
Erik Gordon 	Goaltender		Graduation (retired)
Michael Higgins	Defenseman		Signed professional contract (HC ZUBR Přerov)
Jack Hillman 	Defenseman		Left program (retired)
Michael Kane 	Forward 		Left program (retired)
Ryan Leibold 	Forward 		Graduate transfer to Merrimack
Ryan Pineault 	Defenseman		Left program (retired)
Matt Radomsky 	Goaltender		Transferred to Alaska
Matt Slick 	Defenseman		Graduate transfer to Ferris State
Erkka Vänskä 	Forward 		Graduation (retired)
Anthony Vincent	Forward 		Graduate transfer to Long Island
==Recruiting==
Jonathan Balah	Defenseman		21	Barrie, ON
Matt DeBoer 	Forward 		20	Madison, NJ
Jason Grande 	Goaltender		23	West Chester, PA; transfer from Bentley
Louden Hogg 	Goaltender		19	Cheyenne, WY
Conner Jean 	Forward 		25	Oakland, MI; transfer from Carleton
Liam McLinskey	Forward 		21	Pearl River, NY; transfer from Quinnipiac
Mack Oliphant 	Defenseman		19	Northbrook, IL
Devin Phillips	Forward 		21	Raleigh, NC
Jack Seymour 	Defenseman		21	Chelsea, QC
Joe Solimine 	Forward 		20	Middleton, MA
Charlie Spence	Defenseman		20	Boston, MA
==Roster==
As of August 4, 2022.
==Standings==
==Schedule and results==
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | 
==Scoring statistics==
 	C 	41	16	16 	32 	32
 	F 	40	21	4 	25 	22
 	F 	41	7 	16 	23 	28
 	F 	38	5 	14 	19 	37
 	F 	38	7 	11 	18 	22
 	F 	40	4 	14 	18 	30
 	D 	36	7 	10 	17 	28
 	F 	37	8 	8 	16 	31
 	D 	41	1 	13 	14 	29
 	F 	40	6 	6 	12 	12
 	D 	41	2 	10 	12 	10
 	C 	36	5 	6 	11 	12
 	C 	36	0 	9 	9 	32
 	W 	39	3 	5 	8 	18
 	D 	41	1 	5 	6 	45
 	D 	41	1 	4 	5 	55
 	C 	11	1 	2 	3 	4
 	G 	30	1 	2 	3 	12
 	F 	38	0 	3 	3 	19
 	C 	13	1 	1 	2 	5
 	RW	30	0 	2 	2 	4
 	RW	8 	1 	0 	1 	4
 	D 	17	0 	1 	1 	2
 	G 	7 	0 	1 	1 	0
 	F 	3 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	18	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	20	0 	0 	0 	10
Total	 	 	98	164	262	503
==Goaltending statistics==
 	20	1131:51	12	7 	1	44 	453	1	.911	2.33
 	19	990:01 	3 	11	2	43 	397	1	.902	2.61
 	8 	365:03 	2 	3 	0	20 	137	1	.873	3.29
Empty Net	- 	30:35 	- 	- 	-	12 	- 	-	- 	-
Total 	41	2519:22	17	21	3	119	987	3	.902	2.58
==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 Atlantic Hockey men's ice hockey season
Category:2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey by team
Category:2023 in sports in Massachusetts
Category:2022 in sports in Massachusetts