The Mustangs qualified for their first-ever National Tournament appearance, drawing a tough pool with University of Missouri #4, Air Force Academy #5, and Michigan State #13. They got there by making an impressive 3-0 playoff run, winning the 1st NECHA Championship in Program History.

The trip started on Wednesday with a 45-minute practice. After the practice, the players were shown a video made by family members, friends, and supporters of CM Hockey. ''CM Hockey has had great support over the years but especially these last couple of years with lots of players being from Maine, the video gave us chills it was amazing to see different family members, friends, and supporters wishing us good luck for the tournament'' Said Coach Knoren

In 1st game, the Mustangs faced Air Force Academy and after creating a couple of great A scoring opportunities it was Air Force Academy who capitalized first. The Mustangs then would hit a rough patch not playing their own game and Air Force would capitalize 2 more goals making the 2nd intermission score 3-0. ''Our message in the locker room was that it should not be 3-0 we had plenty of chances and scoring has been our strength all year, we had to settle down and convert on the next opportunities we were going to get'' It took a while but Michael Belleau found the net with 5 minutes left in the game and shortly after Gabe Poirier would find a rebound to make the game 3-2 with 1.30 minutes left on the clock. The Mustangs would push hard but Air Force made a couple of key blocks to win the game 3-2

In 2nd the game, The Mustangs faced a top-ranked opponent in the pool University of Missouri, and found themselves in a familiar scenario after not scoring 1st Missouri would score 2 quick goals to take control of the game. Evan Knowlton would find the net after a great pass from Zach Mitton giving the Mustangs some life. Missouri kept finding rebounds and tips to go up 4-1, but Diego Alonso scored a great 2nd-period goal with a nifty assist from Luke Pomerleau. However, the Mustangs could never find that next goal, and Missouri would bury the game late with a final score of 6-3. The Mustangs did end up outshooting Missouri by 7

In 3rd game, The Mustangs were already eliminated and Michigan State still had a chance to move on depending on the outcome between the University of Missouri and Airforce Academy. '' Every time you touch the ice you have to be a professional about it, treat the game the right way, and make sure your compete level is 100% no matter what the scenario is in the standings, we had a job to do against Michigan State and that message was clear said Coach Knoren'' The Mustangs got off to a fast start with Gabe Poirier finding a deflection goal, it wasn't until late in the 2nd period that Michigan State would find the equalizer. James Sicurella shot the puck from the blue line after it took a weird bounce it would find the back of the net giving the Mustangs a 2-1 lead, late in the 3rd period the Spartans found a back-door rebound to make it 2-2 heading into overtime. Overtime provided lots of opportunities but when it was all set and done the final score would remain 2-2. '' Super proud of our team for showing up to play today and eliminating Michigan State from making it to the Semi-Finals''

It wasn't the result we wanted coming to the National Tournament, but every game we gave ourselves a chance to win the game, we didn't convert our scoring chances as well as we did during the regular season, and not all the bounces went our way every night. Our competitive level was there every night, playing 3 tough opponents in 3 nights was not an easy task but our group was resilient and proud of our efforts against the big-name schools! This will give us a lot of good experience going into next season, unfortunately, we will lose a good number of seniors but they have helped us build this program and I wish them nothing but success in the future! '' Said Coach Knoren''

Thank you to all the fans for all the support this year, and we can't wait to be back for 2024-2025.