2022–23 Ohio State Buckeyes men's ice hockey season
NCAA Tournament, Regional Final
Conference	3rd Big Ten
Home ice	Value City Arena
Rankings
USCHO	#7
USA Today	#7
Record
Overall	21–16–3
Conference	11–11–3
Home	12–4–1
Road	7–10–2
Neutral	2–1–0
Coaches and captains
Head coach	Steve Rohlik
Assistant coaches	J. B. Bittner Luke Strand Dustin Carlson
Captain(s)	Gustaf Westlund
Alternate captain(s)	Jaedon Leslie
Ohio State Buckeyes men's ice hockey seasons « 2021–22 2023–24 »

The 2022–23 Ohio State Buckeyes men's ice hockey season was the 60th season of play for the program and 10th in the Big Ten Conference. The Buckeyes represented the Ohio State University in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, were coached by Steve Rohlik in his 10th season, and played their home games at Value City Arena.

Season

After tragically missing the NCAA tournament last season, Ohio State entered this season with high expectations. With last years freshman phenom, Jakub Dobeš, as well as star defenseman Mason Lohrei both returning to the lineup, the team's only real question was who would replace the one-and-done Georgii Merkulov as the Buckeye's biggest offensive threat. Senior center Jake Wise initially stepped to the fore but he was eventually joined by another freshman, Stephen Halliday. Neither Wise nor Halliday had the scoring acumen to be big goal scorers but the playmaking centers helped their teammates post solid numbers, aptly replacing the lost offense.

Ohio State started off the season in good standing, going undefeated in the first 5 games. In the 5th match, however, team captain Gustaf Westlund was felled by an injury that would keep him out of the lineup for over 5 months.^[1] In the wake of that loss, the team had one of its worst performance all season and were trounced by Connecticut. They bounced back afterwards and posted three more victories, including a defeat of #1 Minnesota, to run their record to 7–2–1 in the first month of the season.

After taking a week off, the team returned to the ice with a showdown against a surprising Michigan State squad. Unfortunately, that where the team was forced to deal with something they had not prepared for. In the game on November 11, Kamil Sadlocha was given a game misconduct for yelling a racial slur at Jagger Joshua.^[2] The Big Ten supported the match penalty but, due to a lack of incontrovertible evidence, would not add any additional punishment. Because of the lack of action from either Ohio State or the Big Ten, Joshua went public with the incident a week later. Though Jagger did not name the offending player, Sadlocha was the only one to receive a match penalty in the game. After the full account of the incident was reported, the Ohio State athletic department sent Sadlocha home for an indeterminate time.^[3] He eventually returned to the team in late January but finished out the remainder of his senior season without registering another point.

In the meantime, Ohio State struggled through a bad patch in November and went 2–6 over an 8-game span. While most of those losses were to ranked team, only being able to earn a split at Long Island damaged the team's postseason hopes and had them on the outside of the NCAA picture for a brief time. By December, the team appeared to recover their earlier form and a 6-game winning streak cured many of the Buckeyes' ills. Ohio State performed adequately in the second half of the season, finishing slightly below .500 but managed to take the regular season series from Michigan for the first time in 3 years.

When the Buckeyes entered the postseason, they were sitting 10 in the PairWise ranking and were virtually guaranteed an NCAA tournament berth if they could reach the semifinals. Their opponent in the quarterfinals was a collapsing Penn State team who graciously forgot how to score in the best of three series. Ohio State had troubles of their own but the Buckeyes were able to win two of the games and advance. While the team was outplayed by Michigan in the semifinal, losing a closer game than a 3–7 score would indicate, The Buckeyes were still in the top 10 in the national rankings and easily made the NCAA tournament. While they had finished with a worse record than they had the year before, Ohio State had played a far more difficult schedule and weren't punished as much for those losses.

While the team was ranked 8th, tied with Penn State, Ohio state had a slightly lower ranking and were given a 3 seed. Additionally, because they could not play their own conference in the first round, the Buckeyes were set against #7 Harvard for their opening game. The unfavorable seeding was supposed to have the Crimson as the favorites to reach the quarterfinals but the Buckeyes didn't take any notice. From the start of the game, Ohio State was in complete control. The scarlet and grey shut down the high-scoring Harvard offense in the first two periods, allowing just 8 shots to reach Dobeš, all of which he stopped. The Buckeyes, on the other hand, peppered the Harvard goal with a barrage, recording 34 shots in just 40 minutes. The Buckeyes netted two markers in the first but broke through with a 5-goal avalanche in the second to take an insurmountable 7–0 lead into the third. After an 8th goal early, Ohio State just sat back and played defense for the rest of the game. Harvard was finally able to get on the board late by that didn't affect the outcome of the game and the Buckeyes rolled to a 8–1 triumph.

Things appeared to be heading in the same direction in their next game when Joe Dunlap squeaked a goal through Yaniv Perets just 91 seconds into the game. However, after that the Buckeyes were totally stymied by the All-American goaltender and could not get another goal. Despite outshooting the Bobcats, Ohio Sate fell 1–4 to Quinnipiac, ending their season with a solid if unfulfilling campaign.

Departures

Player	Position	Nationality	Cause
Eric Cooley	Forward	United States	Graduation (signed with Chicago Wolves)
Grant Gabriele	Defenseman	United States	Graduation (signed with Providence Bruins)
Georgii Merkulov	Forward	Russia	Signed professional contract (Boston Bruins)
Ryan O'Connell	Forward	Canada	Graduate transfer to Michigan Tech
Quinn Preston	Forward	United States	Graduation (signed with Toledo Walleye)
Will Riedell	Defenseman	United States	Graduation (signed with Lehigh Valley Phantoms)

Recruiting

Player	Position	Nationality	Age	Notes
Scooter Brickey	Defenseman	United States	23	Mt. Clemens, MI; transfer from Western Michigan
Davis Burnside	Forward	United States	18	La Grange, IL
Tyler Duke	Defenseman	United States	18	Strongsville, OH
John Larkin	Forward/Defenseman	United States	21	Detroit, MI

Roster

As of July 21, 2022.^[4]

No.	S/P/C	Player	Class	Pos	Height	Weight	DoB	Hometown	Previous team	NHL rights
2		James Marooney	Senior	D	5' 9" (1.75 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	1999-08-16	Chaska, Minnesota	Waterloo (USHL)	—
3		Cole McWard	Sophomore	D	6' 1" (1.85 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	2001-06-09	Fenton, Missouri	Tri-City (USHL)	—
4		John Larkin	Freshman	D	6' 2" (1.88 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	2001-01-26	Northville, Michigan	Austin (NAHL)	—
5		Tyler Duke	Freshman	D	5' 9" (1.75 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	2004-07-19	Strongsville, Ohio	NTDP (USHL)	—
6		Mason Lohrei	Sophomore	D	6' 4" (1.93 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	2001-01-07	Madison, Wisconsin	Green Bay (USHL)	BOS, 58th overall 2020
7		Evan McIntyre	Junior	D	5' 10" (1.78 m)	174 lb (79 kg)	2000-10-17	Oakville, Ontario	Penticton (BCHL)	—
8		Scooter Brickey	Senior	D	6' 4" (1.93 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	1999-05-27	North Lakeport, Michigan	Western Michigan (NCHC)	—
9		Dominic Vidoli	Senior	D	6' 0" (1.83 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	1999-06-23	Wake Forest, North Carolina	Sioux City (USHL)	—
11		Kamil Sadlocha	Senior	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	1999-04-12	Carpentersville, Illinois	Madison (USHL)	—
13		Tate Singleton	Senior	F	5' 9" (1.75 m)	177 lb (80 kg)	1998-09-05	West Lebanon, New Hampshire	Central Illinois (USHL)	—
14		Dalton Messina	Senior	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	1998-03-29	Macomb, Michigan	Youngstown (USHL)	—
15		Cam Thiesing	Sophomore	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	184 lb (83 kg)	2001-03-26	Nashville, Tennessee	Green Bay (USHL)	—
17		Mark Cheremeta	Senior	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	1999-07-12	Parkland, Florida	Dubuque (USHL)	—
18		Michael Gildon	Junior	F	6' 2" (1.88 m)	196 lb (89 kg)	2001-06-21	Plano, Texas	NTDP (USHL)	—
19		Stephen Halliday	Freshman	F	6' 4" (1.93 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	2002-07-02	Glenwood, Maryland	Dubuque (USHL)	OTT, 104th overall 2022
20		Matt Cassidy	Senior	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	187 lb (85 kg)	1999-07-31	Medford, New Jersey	Youngstown (USHL)	—
21		Joe Dunlap	Junior	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	1999-11-30	Windham, New Hampshire	Fargo (USHL)	—
23		Davis Burnside	Freshman	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	176 lb (80 kg)	2003-09-22	Scottsdale, Arizona	Dubuque (USHL)	—
26		Jaedon Leslie (A)	Senior	F	6' 1" (1.85 m)	187 lb (85 kg)	1998-08-04	St. Albert, Alberta	Fort McMurray (AJHL)	—
28		Jake Wise	Graduate	F	5' 10" (1.78 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	2000-02-28	Reading, Massachusetts	Boston University (HEA)	CHI, 69th overall 2018
29		Gustaf Westlund (C)	Graduate	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	1997-12-12	Stockholm, Sweden	Lincoln (USHL)	—
30		Ryan Snowden	Senior	G	6' 3" (1.91 m)	205 lb (93 kg)	1998-03-06	Lincoln University, Pennsylvania	Central Illinois (USHL)	—
34		Reilly Herbst	Sophomore	G	6' 0" (1.83 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	2000-02-17	Niwot, Colorado	Omaha (USHL)	—
44		Jakub Dobeš	Sophomore	G	6' 4" (1.93 m)	198 lb (90 kg)	2001-05-27	Ostrava, Czech Republic	Omaha (USHL)	MTL, 136th overall 2020
65		C. J. Regula	Senior	D	6' 3" (1.91 m)	205 lb (93 kg)	1998-05-29	Bloomfield Hills, Michigan	Shreveport (NAHL)	—
71		Patrick Guzzo	Junior	F	6' 3" (1.91 m)	198 lb (90 kg)	2001-11-27	Marysville, Michigan	Waterloo (USHL)	—
94		Travis Treloar	Junior	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	177 lb (80 kg)	2001-05-12	Kalmar, Sweden	Lincoln (USHL)	—

Standings

Schedule and results

Scoring statistics

^[6]

Goaltending statistics

Rankings

USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 1, 13 and 26.

Awards and honors

References

External links