2023–24 Michigan Tech Huskies men's ice hockey season

The 2023–24 Michigan Tech Huskies men's ice hockey season was the 103rd season of play for the program and 6th in the CCHA. The Huskies represented Michigan Technological University in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at MacInnes Student Ice Arena and were coached by Joe Shawhan in his 7th season.

Season
Due to a hazing incident, at Bowling Green, Austen Swankler left the program just before the start of the season. After entering the transfer portal, he announced that he had decided to join Michigan Tech. Due to transfer rules, Swankler would not be able to play for the Huskies until the spring semester.

Tech was adding Swankler to a club that had high expectations for itself. Their leading scorer from '23, Kyle Kukkonen, was now entering his second season and the team was backstopped by All-American Blake Pietila, who had returned for a fifth season. While there was a good deal of roster turnover, Tech was still picked to win the CCHA title in the preseason poll. The Huskies entered the year ranked in the top 10 nationally but did not get off to a good start. After tying Minnesota Duluth in the US Hockey Hall of Fame Game, Pietila had a rough couple of weeks in goal. The offense, which was still sorting itself out, got very little help from Kukkonen as he went goal-less in October. Michigan Tech didn't score more than 2 goals in any of their seven contests during the month and finished the month with a dreadful 0–4–3 record.

Adding insult to injury, Patriks Marcinkēvičs had filed a misconduct claim with the university about head coach Joe Shawhan. The Long Island transfer claimed that he had suffered mental abuse in the form of "hurtful comments" while the coach had "fostered a divisive culture". During the subsequent investigation, the school found that Shawhan had kicked Marcinkēvičs out of multiple practices since the beginning of the season. Additionally, in the Huskies' game on October 21, Marcinkēvičs had been benched for the third period after be called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the second, his second minor of the night. Two days later, Marcinkēvičs was kicked out of practice yet again and proceeded to clean out his locker of his own volition. He met with Shawhan afterwards and recorded their conversation without the coach's knowledge. While Marcinkēvičs intended to return at some future date, the school informed him that while it was conducting its investigation into the accusations, he would be unable to return to the team. After three weeks, the school announced that it had completed its review and no action would be taken. When asked for further detail, Michigan Tech said that they were unable to disclose any details of the investigation due to FERPA regulations. The only other detail that was reported was that after Marcinkēvičs had left the team, no other player had come forth with any accusations against the coach. In the interim, Marcinkēvičs had made the recording public and given an interview to TV6 to give his side of the story. Despite his initial intentions, after the review Marcinkēvičs was not allowed to return to the program and instead signed a professional contract.

At the height of the investigation, Tech finally found its offense and swept Augustana for its first wins of the season. The weekend was the coming out party for Isaac Gordon, who recorded a hat-trick in the first game, while fellow freshmen Chase Pietila and Max Koskipirtti also began to grow comfortable in their roles with the team. It took Blake Pietila a little longer to find his form but eventually the team began to play up to expectations and a very good November brought the team up to .500.

After Christmas, the Huskies battled at the Great Lakes Invitational and after a narrow victory over Alaska (its first against a non-CCHA team), Tech found themselves pitted against #7 Michigan State. Though they outclassed in the match, Blake Pietila and Jack Works combined to produced one of the best performances of the season. Tech was outshot 57–25 in the game but Pietila kept his team in the match. He kept MSU off of the scoresheet for long stretches, enabling Works to give the Huskies two separate leads in the game. After Works completed his hat-trick in the third, Pietila turned aside a withering barrage and though he was unable to keep everything out, he did get his club into overtime. The match eventually went to a shootout and Pietila stopped all three attempts by Michigan State, allowing the marker from Ryland Mosley to stand as the winning score.

While all signs pointed to Tech having overcome its poor start, the team proceeded to immediately fall on its face and get swept by St. Thomas. The team then played .500 hockey over the next four weeks as the offense began to struggle. During this month-long stretch, the defense was about the only thing holding the team together. It wasn't until late-February that the offense woke up once more and Tech finished strong to pull into a tie with St. Thomas. However, because the Tommies had the tie-breaker, Tech was given the third seed for the CCHA tournament.

The Huskies opened their postseason run against Bowling Green, however, they would do so without Swankler. When the forward hit the ice at the Great Lakes Invitational he initially looked right at home and recorded 3 assists in his first three games. Afterwards, however, he went pointless in seven while the team went through its offensive dry spell. In early November, Swankler was felled by an undisclosed injury that would cost him the rest of his season. With him unable to participate, it fell to the rest of the Huskies to get revenge in his name. Gordon's 3-point game was more then enough when Blake Pietila posted his fourth shutout of the season Tech continued to hammer the puck at the net in the rematch but a poor game from Pietila let a little drama creep in; the Falcons went 2-for-2 on the power play and twice were able to take the lead despite getting just 15 shots in the game. Tech, however, continued its offensive surge and scored 4 power play goals. A second 3-point effort from Gordon was just what the team needed to win a 1-goal game and advance to the semifinals.

Against Minnesota State, Tech needed all of the offense it could muster. Three separate times the Huskies got behind but each time they managed to tie the game. Special teams once again were key for Tech as they scored on the power play and had Logan Pietila score late in the third on a penalty shot. As the final seconds were ticking away, Tech fired a puck towards the Maverick net. While the shot looked to be going wide, the MSU netminder kicked it away. Instead of going into the corner, however, the puck deflected up behind the net and struck the glass. It rebounded back over the goal and a Minnesota State defender went to swipe it away from danger. He missed the puck which instead struck him in the helmet, then bounced back towards the goal and dropped behind the goaltender and into the cage. Logan Pietila was given credit for his second goal of the game and with just 9 seconds left on the clock, it proved to be the game-winner. In the championship game, there were fewer goals but no less drama. Bemidji State opened the scoring but, less than a minute later, Chase Pietila tied the score. Rylan Mosley's 18th of the season in the middle of the second period gave Tech the lead and from then on it was up to Blake Pietila to carry them to the finish. Their star netminder stopped 17 shots in the third, as well as a Beaver power play in the final 5 minutes, to lead the Huskies to victory and send Tech back to the NCAA tournament.

Due in no small part to their terrible non-conference record, Michigan Tech received the 16th and last seed and was set against Boston College. The Huskies played the Eagles well in the first two periods and a short-handed goal from Max Koskipirtti gave some hope that Tech might be able to pull off the upset. Down by just 1 goal entering the third, BC's vaunted offense took over and they scored three goals in quick succession. Michigan Tech had no response and the game was all but over with 10 minutes to play. The final nail in the coffin came when Mosley was given a match penalty for contact to the head and BC scored twice on the ensuing major penalty. Regardless of the sour end, Michigan Tech had battled to several obstacles to produce a successful season.

Roster
As of September 18, 2023.

Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season

!colspan=12 style=";" | Great Lakes Invitational

!colspan=12 style=";" | CCHA Tournament

!colspan=12 style=";" | NCAA Tournament

Rankings
Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 11 and 25. Note: USA Today did not release a poll in week 12.

2024 NHL Entry Draft
† incoming freshman