2021–22 CCHA season

2021–22 CCHA season
Season	2021–22
Conference	CCHA
Division	Division I
Sport	ice hockey
Duration	October 2, 2021– April 9, 2022
Number of teams	8
Regular season
Season champions	Minnesota State
Season MVP	Dryden McKay
Top scorer	Brian Halonen
CCHA tournament
Tournament champions	Minnesota State
Runners-up	Bemidji State
Top scorer	Sam Morton (7)
NCAA tournament
Bids	2
Record	3–2
Best Finish	National runner-up
Team(s)	Minnesota State
CCHA seasons « 2012–13 2022–23 »

The 2021–22 CCHA season was the 43rd season of play for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and part of the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season. The regular season began on October 2, 2021, and concluded on February 26, 2022.^[1] The conference tournament began on March 4 and ended on March 19, 2022.

Revival

On February 18, 2020, 7 schools that had previously announced their departure from the WCHA after the 2020–21 season in order to form a new conference officially announced that their new conference would be a reestablished CCHA.^[2] Bowling Green, which had been a founding member of the CCHA in 1971 and remained in the conference until its dissolution in 2013, had retained control of the name in the interim.

A year earlier, St. Thomas was involuntarily removed from the MIAC, which would take effect after the 2020–21 scholastic year.^[3] In July 2020 the NCAA gave permission for the university to promote its athletic programs from Division III directly to Division I without the normal waiting period or ineligibilities.^[4] Within two weeks time, St. Thomas applied for and was approved as the 8th member of the conference to begin play this season.^[5]

After the conclusion of the 2020–21 season, Alabama–Huntsville, another WCHA team, submitted a bid to be accepted as the conference's 9th member. On May 5, 2021, the CCHA rejected Alabama–Huntsville's inclusion.^[6]

Coaches

Enrico Blasi, formerly the head coach at Miami, was announced as St. Thomas' first head coach at the Division I level on April 2, 2021.^[7] At the start of his tenure with St. Thomas, Blasi was just 2 wins shy of 400 for his career.^[8]

Records

Team	Head coach	Season at school	Record at school	CCHA record
Bemidji State	Tom Serratore	21	335–307–92	0–0–0
Bowling Green	Ty Eigner	3	41–23–5	0–0–0
Ferris State	Bob Daniels	30	462–538–107	247–277–72
Lake Superior State	Damon Whitten	8	99–133–27	0–0–0
Michigan Tech	Joe Shawhan	5	74–64–13	0–0–0
Minnesota State	Mike Hastings	10	236–90–24	0–0–0
Northern Michigan	Grant Potulny	5	75–64–10	0–0–0
St. Thomas	Enrico Blasi	1	0–0–0	0–0–0

Standings

2021–22 Central Collegiate Hockey Association Standings v t e
	Conference record											Overall record
	GP	W	L	T	OTW	OTL	3/SW	PTS	GF	GA		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
#2 Minnesota State †*	26	23	3	0	2	0	0	67	115	28		44	38	6	0	178	60
#14 Michigan Tech	26	16	8	2	2	4	0	54	93	53		37	21	13	3	118	75
Bemidji State	26	14	12	0	1	1	0	42	83	81		39	19	20	0	118	121
Lake Superior State	26	13	13	0	1	1	0	39	69	64		37	18	18	1	107	104
Northern Michigan	26	12	13	1	3	0	1	35	86	99		37	20	16	1	132	136
Bowling Green	26	11	14	1	2	1	0	33	67	87		37	15	19	3	94	119
Ferris State	26	9	16	1	2	2	0	28	66	99		36	11	24	1	90	135
St. Thomas	26	3	22	1	0	4	0	14	45	112		36	3	32	1	61	168
Championship: March 19, 2022 † indicates conference regular season champion (MacNaughton Cup) * indicates conference tournament champion (Mason Cup) Rankings: USCHO.com Top 20 Poll

Non-Conference record

Of the sixteen teams that are selected to participate in the NCAA tournament, ten will be via at-large bids. Those 10 teams are determined based upon the PairWise rankings. The rankings take into account all games played but are heavily affected by intra-conference results. The result is that teams from leagues which perform better in non-conference are much more likely to receive at-large bids even if they possess inferior records overall.

The CCHA was a bit of a mixed bag with their nonconference results. As many teams finished with losing records as winning marks and the league had nearly an even finish overall. The biggest drag on the CCHA was the performance against the Big Ten, which put the league in poor standings for the postseason. While the record was improved by their results against ECAC Hockey, that conference was one of the weakest for this season and didn't help as much as it might have in other years.

Regular season record

Team	Atlantic Hockey	Big Ten	ECAC Hockey	Hockey East	Independent	NCHC	Total
Bemidji State	0–0–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	1–1–0	1–5–0	2–6–0
Bowling Green	0–0–0	0–2–0	2–0–1	0–1–0	0–0–0	1–0–1	3–3–2
Ferris State	1–1–0	0–2–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	1–3–0	2–6–0
Lake Superior State	0–0–0	0–2–0	3–0–1	0–0–0	0–0–0	1–1–0	4–3–1
Michigan Tech	0–0–0	2–2–1	1–1–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	3–3–1
Minnesota State	0–0–0	0–1–0	0–0–0	3–0–0	2–0–0	3–1–0	8–2–0
Northern Michigan	0–0–0	0–1–0	2–0–0	2–0–0	0–0–0	2–0–0	6–1–0
St. Thomas	0–0–0	0–2–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	0–4–0	0–2–0	0–8–0
Overall	1–1–0	2–12–1	8–1–2	5–1–0	3–5–0	9–12–1	28–32–4

Statistics

Leading scorers

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes^[9]

Player	Class	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Brian Halonen	Senior	Michigan Tech	26	16	20	36	18
Julian Napravnik	Senior	Minnesota State	22	13	21	34	0
Nathan Smith	Junior	Minnesota State	22	13	20	33	18
Owen Sillinger	Senior	Bemidji State	26	10	22	32	24
Trenton Bliss	Senior	Michigan Tech	25	10	21	31	18
Brendan Furry	Sophomore	Minnesota State	26	9	21	30	8
Cade Borchardt	Junior	Minnesota State	26	11	18	29	8
Hank Crone	Senior	Northern Michigan	22	9	19	28	10
Louis Boudon	Junior	Lake Superior State	26	10	18	28	25
Alex Ierullo	Senior	Bemidji State	26	11	17	28	20

Leading goaltenders

Minimum 1/3 of team's minutes played in conference games.
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average^[10]

Player	Class	Team	GP	Min	W	L	T	GA	SO	SV%	GAA
Dryden McKay	Senior	Minnesota State	25	1482	23	2	0	26	6	.942	1.05
Blake Pietila	Junior	Michigan Tech	26	1503	16	8	2	50	5	.911	1.99
Ethan Langenegger	Sophomore	Lake Superior State	16	953	8	8	0	36	3	.925	2.27
Seth Eisele	Sophomore	Lake Superior State	11	658	5	5	0	29	0	.911	2.64
Charlie Glockner	Freshman	Northern Michigan	14	686	5	3	0	32	0	.907	2.80

Bracket

Main article: 2022 CCHA men's ice hockey tournament

	Quarterfinals March 4–6							Semifinals March 12					Championship March 19
	1	Minnesota State	3	8	-
	8	St. Thomas	2	2	-
								1	Minnesota State	8
								5	Northern Michigan	1
	2	Michigan Tech	3*	3**	-
	7	Ferris State	2	2	-
													1	Minnesota State	2*
	(Pairings are reseeded after the first round)
													3	Bemidji State	1
	3	Bemidji State	1	4	3
	6	Bowling Green	2	2	1
								2	Michigan Tech	2
								3	Bemidji State	5
	4	Lake Superior State	1	3	4
	5	Northern Michigan	5	2	5

Note: * denotes overtime periods

NCAA tournament

Main article: 2022 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament

Regional semifinal

East

March 24, 2022 12:00 PM

(1) Minnesota State

4 – 3 (2–0, 1–2, 1–1)

(4) Harvard

MVP Arena Attendance: 2,345

Game reference
	Dryden McKay	Goalies	Mitchell Gibson	Referees: Joe Sullivan Dan Dreger Linesmen: Justin Hills Geoff Shultz
	(Hirose, Groll) Connor Gregga (6) – 14:12 1–0 (Hirose) Reggie Lutz (14) – PP – 17:46 2–0 (unassisted) Brendan Furry (12) – 22:06 3–0 3–1 36:42 – Sean Farrell (11) (Coronato, Abruzzese) 3–2 37:30 – Alex Gaffney (8) (Laferriere) (Groll, Hirose) Ondřej Pavel (11) – GW – 45:59 4–2 4–3 56:29 – PP EA – Casey Dornbach (9) (Farrell, Laferriere)
	4 min	Penalties	6 min
	40	Shots	22

West

March 24, 2022 1:00 PM

(2) Minnesota Duluth

3 – 0 (1–0, 0–0, 2–0)

(3) Michigan Tech

Budweiser Events Center Attendance: 3,138

Game reference
	Ryan Fanti	Goalies	Blake Pietila	Referees: Colin Kronforst Sean Fernandez Linesmen: Justin Cornell Pat Richardson
	(unassisted) Kobe Roth (17) – GW – 14:54 1–0 (unassisted) Kyler Kleven (3) – 46:09 2–0 (unassisted) Kobe Roth (18) – EN – 59:53 3–0
	8 min	Penalties	15 min
	25	Shots	28

Regional final

East

March 26, 2022 6:30 PM

(1) Minnesota State

1 – 0 (1–0, 0–0, 0–0)

(3) Notre Dame

MVP Arena Attendance: 3,449

Game reference
	Dryden McKay	Goalies	Matthew Galajda	Referees: Geno Bindo Jeremy Tufts Linesmen: Kevin Briganti Bill Kingdon
	(Furry) Nathan Smith (19) – GW – 19:44 1–0
	6 min	Penalties	2 min
	33	Shots	23

National semifinal

April 7, 2022 8:30 PM

(E1) Minnesota State

5 – 1 (0–1, 2–0, 3–0)

(NE2) Minnesota

TD Garden Attendance: 17,850

Game reference
	Dryden McKay	Goalies	Justen Close	Referees: Ryan Sweeney Michael Schubert Linesmen: Anthony Valle Shane Kanaly
	0–1 09:00 – Matthew Knies (15) (Brodzinski) (Sowder, Pavel) Benton Maass (6) – 27:22 1–1 (Silye, Livingstone) Reggie Lutz (15) – GW – 33:31 2–1 (McNeely, Groll) Ondřej Pavel (12) – 41:57 3–1 (Morton) David Silye (8) – 53:17 4–1 (unassisted) Brendan Furry (13) – EN – 58:51 5–1
	0 min	Penalties	0 min
	32	Shots	17

National championship

April 9, 2022 8:00 PM

(E1) Minnesota State

1–5 (1–0, 0–0, 0–5)

(W1) Denver

TD Garden Attendance: 17,850

Game reference
				Referees: Geno Binda Jr. Jeremy Tufts Linesmen: Bill Kingdon Kevin Briganti

Scoring summary
Period	Team	Goal	Assist(s)	Time	Score
1st	MSU	Sam Morton (9) – PP	Sowder and Sandelin	13:59	1–0 MSU
2nd	None
3rd	DEN	Ryan Barrow (8)	Benning and Devine	44:46	1–1
	DEN	Michael Benning (15) – GW	Buium and Wright	47:33	2–1 DEN
	DEN	Massimo Rizzo (12)	Mazur and Lee	53:34	3–1 DEN
	DEN	Brett Stapley (18) – EN	unassisted	57:28	4–1 DEN
	DEN	Cameron Wright (23) – EN	Mazur	58:00	5–1 DEN
Penalty summary
Period	Team	Player	Penalty	Time	PIM
1st	DEN	Michael Benning	Tripping	12:23	2:00
	MSU	Nathan Smith	Roughing	15:28	2:00
2nd	MSU	Bench	Too Many Men	27:07	2:00
3rd	MSU	Sam Morton	Tripping	45:26	2:00

Shots by period Team 1 2 3 T Denver 3 5 12 20 Minnesota State 8 10 10 28

Goaltenders Team Name Saves Goals against Time on ice DEN Magnus Chrona 27 1 60:00 MSU Dryden McKay 15 3 58:22

Ranking

Main article: 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey rankings

USCHO

Team	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	Final
Bemidji State	14	15	20	19	17	20	NR	20	20	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Bowling Green	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
Ferris State	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
Lake Superior State	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
Michigan Tech	NR	NR	16	18	18	18	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	18	20	19	17	18	15	14	14	14	15	13	15	14	14
Minnesota State	5	1	1	2	3	2	3	3	1	2	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2
Northern Michigan	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	19	NR	NR	NR	19	20	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
St. Thomas	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

^[11]

USA Today

Team	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	Final
Bemidji State	15	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
Bowling Green	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
Ferris State	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
Lake Superior State	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
Michigan Tech	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	14	14	13	13	15	13	14	14	14	14
Minnesota State	5	2	1	2	2	2	3	3	1	2	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2
Northern Michigan	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
St. Thomas	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

^[12]

Pairwise

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	Final
Bemidji State	14	49	39	24	26	19	13	14	17	16	21	23	20	18	26	26	27	26	29	29	30	29	29
Bowling Green	14	38	29	19	20	9	19	14	24	23	25	30	31	32	32	31	32	31	34	36	35	34	34
Ferris State	13	44	51	45	42	36	43	48	49	47	47	46	46	48	44	47	48	50	51	48	49	49	49
Lake Superior State	12	31	23	21	29	22	30	34	34	33	32	31	32	38	38	33	34	33	32	30	31	32	32
Michigan Tech	14	25	7	11	9	14	16	10	10	12	14	13	15	11	9	7	8	10	12	12	10	12	12
Minnesota State	5	9	10	6	6	6	5	4	5	3	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	2
Northern Michigan	14	15	25	35	39	34	34	30	29	25	26	28	27	26	24	26	26	28	25	26	25	26	25
St. Thomas	14	32	41	48	51	55	53	53	55	57	58	57	57	56	56	58	58	59	59	59	59	59	59

Note: teams ranked in the top-10 automatically qualify for the NCAA tournament. Teams ranked 11-16 can qualify based upon conference tournament results.^[13]

Awards

NCAA

Award		Recipient
Hobey Baker Award		Dryden McKay, Minnesota State
Spencer Penrose Award		Mike Hastings, Minnesota State
AHCA All-American Teams[14]
West First Team	Position	Team
Dryden McKay	G	Minnesota State
Nathan Smith	F	Minnesota State
West Second Team	Position	Team
Brian Halonen	F	Michigan Tech

CCHA

Award		Recipient
Player of the Year		Dryden McKay, Minnesota State
Forward of the Year		Nathan Smith, Minnesota State
Defenseman of the Year		Jake Livingstone, Minnesota State
Goaltender of the Year		Dryden McKay, Minnesota State
Rookie of the Year		Bradley Marek, Ferris State
Coach of the Year		Mike Hastings, Minnesota State
All-CCHA Teams
First Team[15]	Position	Second Team[16]
Dryden McKay, Minnesota State	G	Blake Pietila, Michigan Tech
Jake Livingstone, Minnesota State	D	Colin Swoyer, Michigan Tech
Elias Rosén, Bemidji State	D	Jacob Bengtsson, Lake Superior State
Nathan Smith, Minnesota State	F	Owen Sillinger, Bemidji State
Brian Halonen, Michigan Tech	F	Louis Boudon, Lake Superior State
Julian Napravnik, Minnesota State	F	Trenton Bliss, Michigan Tech
	F	AJ Vanderbeck, Northern Michigan
Rookie Team[17]	Position
Mattias Sholl, Bemidji State	G
Charlie Glockner, Northern Michigan	G
Eric Parker, Bowling Green	D
Bennett Zmolek, Minnesota State	D
Bradley Marek, Ferris State	F
Austen Swankler, Bowling Green	F
Josh Nixon, Lake Superior State	F

NCAA tournament

All-Tournament Team
Player	Pos	Team
Jack McNeely	D	Minnesota State
Sam Morton	F	Minnesota State

2022 NHL Entry Draft

Main article: 2022 NHL Entry Draft

Round	Pick	Player	College	NHL team
7	217	Reese Laubach^†	Minnesota State	San Jose Sharks
7	219	Cade Littler^†	Minnesota State	Calgary Flames

† incoming freshman ^[18]

References

1. "Composite Schedule". Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
2. "Seven NCAA hockey schools leaving WCHA rebranding themselves as new CCHA conference". USCHO.com. February 18, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
3. "D-III Powerhouse St. Thomas Is Getting Kicked Out of Its Conference Because It's Too Good at Sports". Sports Illustrated. May 22, 2019. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
4. "At the rink, it's 'Tommie Time,' as St. Thomas moves hockey programs to Division I". Duluth News Tribune. July 15, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
5. "St. Thomas men's team moves to Division I, will join new CCHA for 2021-22 season". USCHO.com. July 29, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
6. "As CCHA rejects Alabama Huntsville membership, Atlantic Hockey yet to respond, UAH suspends operations immediately". USCHO.com. May 5, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
7. "Staff and Board". You Can Play Project. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
8. "Men's Ice Hockey Coaching Records" (PDF). NCAA. 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
9. "2021-2022 Men's Ice Hockey Conference Statistics". CCHA. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
10. "2021-2022 Men's Ice Hockey Conference Statistics". CCHA. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
11. "USCHO Division I Men's Poll". USCHO.com. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
12. "USA Today Men's Poll". USCHO.com. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
13. "Men's Division I PairWise Rankings". USCHO.com. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
14. "Four players return to 2021-22 Division I men's All-American teams, led by three-time pick Dryden McKay". USCHO.com. April 8, 2022. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
15. "Six players earn All-CCHA First Team honors". CCHA. March 15, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
16. "Four teams represented on All-CCHA Second Team". CCHA. March 15, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
17. "Six teams represented on CCHA All-Rookie Team". CCHA. March 14, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
18. "NCAA player rankings, selections in 2022 NHL Draft". USCHO.com. Retrieved July 9, 2022.

External links

• Official website