Huskies ranked No. 13 in final hockey polls
HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech hockey team is ranked No. 13 in the final DCU/USCHO.com Top 20 and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls. The Huskies finished the season with a 24-11-4 overall record and were the No. 2 seed in the CCHA Mason Cup Playoffs with a 15-7-4 mark.
Tech was ranked No. 20 in the preseason poll and received votes every week throughout the season. The Huskies were in the top 20 since November 28 and climbed to as high as No. 10 on March 6. The final No. 13 ranking is the highest for the Huskies since the 2014-15 season.
Tech received an at-large bid to the 2023 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament for the second season in a row, making its 15th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament and the third under head coach Joe Shawhan. John MacInnes is the only other coach to take the hockey Huskies to three NCAA Tournaments.
Blake Pietila was a First Team All-American, the CCHA Player of the Year, a top three finalist for the Mike Richter Award, and a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. Joe Shawhan was named the CCHA Coach of the Year and Kyle Kukkonen was honored as the CCHA Freshman of the Year.
Blake Pietila (first team), Ryland Mosley (first team), Brett Thorne (second team), and Kyle Kukkonen (rookie team) were named All-CCHA. Blake Pietila broke school records for career wins (58), single-season shutouts (10), and career shutouts (20).
Tech won the Desert Hockey Classic with wins over Arizona State and Boston University to begin the New Year. The Huskies also hosted playoff hockey for the second year in a row.
As a team, the Huskies finished fourth in the nation in shorthanded goals, fifth in penalty-killing percentage, seventh in scoring defense, and eighth in winning percentage.
The DCU/USCHO.com Division I Men's Ice Hockey Poll is compiled weekly and consists of 50 voters, including coaches and media professionals from across the country. DCU (DCU.org), a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by and operated for its members, is the sponsor of this poll. DCU serves more than 900,000 members and their families in all 50 states.
The 28th annual USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll is conducted each week in conjunction with the American Hockey Coaches Association. The poll includes input from coaches and journalists representing each of the six NCAA Division I ice hockey conferences, as well as composite votes from officers of the AHCA and USA Hockey.