Seahawks picked third by CCC coaches

BIDDEFORD, Maine – Endicott was selected as the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) favorite to win the 2022-23 championship in the 2022-23 CCC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

The Gulls earned 59 points in the voting that was conducted by the league's eight head coaches last week. They also earned three of the first place votes.

The defending CCC Regular-Season and Tournament Champion Nor'easters earned the No. 2 spot in this year's poll, falling behind top-ranked Endicott by just two points at 57. UNE also had the most first place votes in this year's poll with four.

UNE had an impressive season in 2022-23, advancing all the way to the NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Semifinals. They won their first two NCAA Tournament games against Plymouth State and Utica, before falling to NCAA DIII Championship runner-up SUNY Geneseo in Lake Placid.

Coming in at the No. 3 spot in this year's voting was Salve Regina. The Seahawks earned 47 points and the final first place vote in the poll. They will be looking to bounce back after an early exit from the CCC Tournament last year as the No. 3 seed in the quarterfinal round.

Rounding out the top five on this year's ledger were Curry in fourth with 43 points and Suffolk in fifth with 28.

Closing out this year's poll were Wentworth (24 points), Nichols (21), and Western New England (9) in that order.

Head coach Zech Klann enters his sixth season at Salve Regina and is excited to begin the new season with a strong returning class. Up front the Seahawks return key players such as Seth Benson (Moorhead, Minn.) (Third Team All-CCC), Cayden Kraus (East St. Paul, Manitoba), and Mitch Walinski (Lincoln, R.I.) (First Team All-CCC) along with a deep core of defensemen. Key newcomers will be wingers Johnny Mulera and Joey Kile. "This team is talented and hungry," said Klann. "The guys who are returning want to avenge last season's playoff loss and have been working hard, and we have some very talented newcomers who are going to add to the firepower of this team. Nov. 4 can't come fast enough!"

The puck drops on the new CCC Men's Ice Hockey season on Friday, Oct. 28 with teams in non-conference action. League play begins the following week on Friday, Nov. 4 with the first home-and-home weekend of year. Each team will play 21 conference contests this year, a home-and-home series against each team on designated conference weekends and then an additional single game each team.

The top six teams in terms of points in the conference standings will qualify for the 2023 CCC Men's Ice Hockey Championship Tournament. The tournament will open on Wednesday, Feb. 22 with a pair of quarterfinal games as the No. 3 seed hosts No. 6 and the No. 4 seed hosts No. 5. The quarterfinal winners will advance to the CCC Semifinals on Saturday, Feb. 25 to meet with the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, both of which receive first-round byes. The semifinal winners will meet for the CCC Tournament Championship on Saturday, March 4 with the winner earning the conference's automatic qualifier into the 2023 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Championship.