2023–24 Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey season

The program's first season under Mike Hastings promised changes and the roster reflected as much before the opening puck was dropped. Of the eleven new players, five were NHL draft picks. Those new teenagers were augmented by three transfers from Minnesota State, Hastings' previous posting, and would be able to help the Badgers adjust to the new style if nothing else. Critical to Wisconsin's chances was goaltending. Kyle McClellan was the only netminder with any starting experience and he would need to a greater aptitude than he had previously if the Badgers were to wake up from their slumber.

Wisconsin took well to their new system and the team got off to a great start. Scoring seemed to be coming from all quarters, making the Badgers a dangerous team no matter which line was on the ice, but it was in net where the biggest chance was happening. McClellan opened the year with two shutouts, portending great thing for the Badgers. Wisconsin was stymied in the Ice Breaker Final by North Dakota, however, they followed that disappointing loss by winning their next six games, including a sweep of #1 Minnesota to open their conference schedule. The sudden and dramatic turnaround sent Wisconsin rocketing up the national ranking and placed the Badgers at #1 by mid-November. Unfortunately, as soon as they reached the pinnacle, the scoring went through a mini slump and the team lost three games in a row. However, the team recovered by the end of the month and won the next five games to finish out the first half of the season.

With Wisconsin 10 games above .500 by Christmas, the team was almost guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament, barring a total collapse. However, not content to rest on its laurels, the team kicked off the second half of the season by winning the Holiday Face–Off, featuring another pair of shutout from McClellan. Three more wins in the first two weeks of 2024 pushed the Badgers up to #3 in the rankings and had them sitting atop the Big Ten standings with Michigan State hot on their heels. A week off in the middle of January seemed to take some of the starch out of Wisconsin's sails and scoring became a bit inconsistent. While McClellan gave his team a chance most nights, the Badgers scoring by committee stopped working. Wisconsin had seven different players finish the year with at least 10 goals, they did not have a top-end scorer who could be counted on to provide goals when the team needed them most. Cruz Lucius led Wisconsin in scoring for the second year in a row but finished the year with only 13 goals. Perhaps the biggest disappointment was Charlie Stramel, who came into the season recovering from an injury and never seemed to get on track. The first round pick showed some flashes but was largely ineffective for Wisconsin and could only manage 3 goals for the entire season.[1]

While Wisconsin stumbled a bit down the stretch, the team benefitted from having a difficult schedule. The Badgers only dropped a couple spots in the PairWise rankings and remained in the top 10 for the entire second half. The final week of the season saw Wisconsin play Michigan State with 1st-place on the line. The Badgers were 2 points behind the Spartans but with 6 points up for grabs they had ample opportunity to win the regular season title. The teams exchanged leads in the first two periods and entered the third tied at 2-all. Despite outplaying MSU for a great portion of the game, Wisconsin was unable to get a leg up on Michigan State and the Spartans pounced when they had the chance. A third period goal gave MSU a late lead and Wisconsin was forced to pull McClellan for an extra attacker. Two empty-net goals ended the game and sealed the fate of the Badgers. Despite winning the rematch, Wisconsin finished second in the Big Ten and missed out on a quarterfinal bye.[2]

The Team ended the regular season still ranked in the top-5 and were guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament no matter what happened in the conference playoffs. However, Wisconsin was again bit by a dearth of scoring. Against Ohio State, the worst team in the Big Ten, Wisconsin was only able to manage a single goal in the first game. The team's power play came up big in the rematch, providing two goals for the effort to even the series.[3] However, the Badgers didn't even get a chance with the man advantage in the rubber match and their only goal came in the waning minutes after they had pulled McClellan. The loses knocked Wisconsin out of the tournament and dropped the team to 8th in the PairWise. While that still gave Wisconsin a #2 seed for the NCAA tournament, it made their first round match that much more difficult.

The Badgers were placed in the East Regional, opposite the defending national champions, Quinnipiac. The team was slow getting out of the gate and only managed to get 4 shots on goal in the first period. A short outburst at the start of the second gave the Badgers a lead but they were unable to sustain any kind of offensive pressure. The Bobcats tied the score goin into the third and it was only through the stellar play of McClellan that they even remained in the game. The Badger defense did its part in holding off Quinnipiac, killing of four separate power plays from the Bobcats (including one in overtime). However, a poor line change near the middle of the fourth period allowed the Bobcats to get a clean breakaway from the blueline in. McClellan bit on the deke and opened up the short-side of the net, allowing the shot to slip past his arm and into the net.[4]

While the end to their season was disappointing, Wisconsin had returned to the national tournament and, perhaps more importantly, gotten back in the good graces of the fans. Wisconin had only been able to draw about 7,000 fans per game the previous season, well below the capacity of the Kohl Center (~15,000). However, by the end of this season, the team was routinely seeing crowd of over 10,000 for its home games, placing it second in crowd size for the year.[5]

As of September 15, 2023.[6]

[8]

Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 11.[9]
^USA Today did not release a poll in week 12.