There was always more than met the eye with Colorado College hockey this season. 

The offseason is no different. 

CC was eliminated from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament at Western Michigan last weekend, ending a disappointing year in which the Tigers went 13-17-6. But the record doesn’t necessarily speak to how the Tigers played. CC was in 13 overtime contests, saw 13 games decided by a single goal, win or lose, and had a league-high six ties. 

The Tigers are on the outside looking in as the conference and national tournaments are played, but CC coach Kris Mayotte isn’t disheartened or dissuaded. The belief he held for the Tigers all season now carries into the offseason. 

While he cautioned that nothing is final, Mayotte expressed optimism about retaining many key players for next season. After losing several weekly starters to the transfer portal, graduation and the pros last year, Mayotte said the feeling entering the offseason this year, is night and day. 

“Even our guys that are our 13th/14th forwards and our 7th and 8th (defensemen), they don’t want to go anywhere. We’re in a completely different space than we were last year,” he said. “ Our culture is so healthy right now, our program is so healthy, our guys can’t wait for next year and all these guys are committed to each other. I don’t want to pretend like they’re committed to me. They’re committed to each other. They have a care for each other, which I think you could see in the way that they played.”

CC had a young team this past season. Thirteen of the 28 players were freshmen. After junior defenseman and captain Max Burkholder suffered a season-ending injury in the opening weekend of the season, CC didn’t have an upperclassman on defense. 

“Winning is a habit, but learning how to win, learning how to do it consistently, what it takes, it takes more than just having a talented roster. We certainly believe in our roster and I think it was the most talented one we’ve had. We had some tough injuries at times, but to watch our young guys step up the way that they did and develop the way that they did, and new leaders step up in situations,” Mayotte said. 

“Some guys struggle at times with leadership but grow at the same time, it’s always still about growth and becoming the best team that you have the potential to become. I was really proud of the way we were playing hockey at the end of the year.”

Mayotte said his coaching staff never wavered in its belief in the team competing for a conference title this season, but the one missing piece was that CC never got hot. After winning four straight to begin conference play on Oct. 31, the Tigers never put together an unbeaten run of at least three games between wins and ties. 

Next season, there’ll be 10 teams in the NCHC as St. Thomas joins the league. The goal for Mayotte is to secure a top-five spot and home ice in at least the conference quarterfinals. If there’s an area for improvement for CC, it’s finishing chances. The Tigers outshot opponents 1,147 to 1,081 this season but were the worst team in the conference and one of the worst teams in the country in terms of goals scored above expected. Of 63 teams in the sport, CC ranked 55th per Puck Preps’ Ryan Sikes. It’s a statistic that didn’t go unnoticed.

But at the end of the day, it’s about trust.  

“Our ability to create offense is good. It was top-20 in the country in terms of generation, we just weren’t able to finish at that rate. If you look at the numbers, our finish rate vs. our expected rate is one of the worst in the country because our expected rate was so high,” he said.

“When you have really, really talented players like we do and it’s just not quite going for you, you have to obviously find ways to improve, but you also trust that the really talented players, who have a long history of goal-soring, are going to find ways to score. What you don’t know is how hard you can get them to play, how much you can get them to commit to a 200-foot game and to a team game. And that’s what I think if you look at the growth of Tomas Mrsic, Brandon Lisowsky, Mateo Mrsic and (Connor) Hvidston and Colton Roberts and these guys who are high prolific scorers coming in and the way they were playing the game at the end of the year, that’s where I say this team is set up to do great things.”