NFL
By Jason Gulden
Welcome back, NCHC fans. We have made it through the first month of the NCHC season. We still have 4 more full months to go. After the first weekend, the standings are logjammed, with one team taking a game lead over everyone else.
Let’s look back at the previous weekend’s games, along with the new rankings in the USCHO, the US Hockey poll, and the standings after the first weekend of conference play.
Thursday Night
Halloween weekend got off to an early start in Kalamazoo, Michigan. #6 Western Michigan welcomed Long Island to town for a Thursday-Friday matchup. After 20 minutes of play, the Broncos led 3-0 and cruised to a 10-2 victory.
William Whitelaw tallied 5 points, 4 goals, and 1 assist. Joona Väisänen tallied 3 goals and 1 assist.
Friday Night
Those same two teams wrapped up the series with #6 Western Michigan cruising to a 7-4 victory. Western had to come back from a 0-2 deficit after the 15:13 mark but scored 6 unanswered goals to win. Zaccharya Wisdom scored 2 goals for the Broncos.
The first conference game of the 2026-2027 season to drop the puck was St. Thomas visiting Miami (OH) in St. Thomas’s first-ever NCHC conference game. The game was tied 1-1 after 20 minutes, with goals from Timmy Runtso (Miami (OH)) and Chase Cheslock (St. Thomas). St. Thomas scored on a 5-on-3 power play. Doug Grimes (Miami (OH)) scored the game-winner at 16:27 of the 3rd period.
Arizona State would travel to the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud to take on the Huskies. Arizona State got the game-winning goal at the 3:45 mark of the 3rd period when Jack Beck found the back of the net to make it 3-2.
Omaha would make the trip to Colorado’s capital to take on the reigning National Champs, the #3 Denver Pioneers. Denver scored the game-winning goal at 13:53 in the 3rd when Kristian Epperson broke the 1-1 tie. Johnny Hicks returned after missing the last five games to save 20 of the 21 shots he faced.
In what was probably the game of the weekend, #7 Minnesota Duluth and #9 Colorado College met in downtown Colorado Springs at the beautiful Ed Robson Arena. I have never seen a college or pro game played so cleanly as I saw in person on Friday night between these two teams. In the game, ONLY one penalty took place, and it was late in the first period on Colorado College. The only goal came off a rebound off Jackson Unger’s pad and then his arm, and it went in at the 17:04 mark of the 3rd. Ty Hanson provided both shots. Minnesota Duluth won 1-0 and sent most of the 3542 fans home disappointed.
Speaking of the Minnesota Duluth victory on Friday night, it was Scott Sandelin’s 499th career victory. All of them came at Minnesota Duluth.
Saturday Night
Arizona State and St. Cloud St would finish up their series with St. Cloud State winning 2-1. St. Cloud scored 2 goals in the first 4:31. William Ahlrik scored the game-winning goal to give St. Cloud a 2-0 lead before Arizona State scored the last goal of the game at 19:10 off the stick of Richard Baran. Each team would earn 3 of the potential 6 points in the series.
St. Thomas would wrap up its series in Oxford, Ohio, against Miami (OH). St. Thomas’s Nathan Pilling had a Natural Hat Trick (3 straight goals by the same player with no other player scoring in between), and the team earned its first-ever NCHC conference win with a 4-1 victory. Both St. Thomas and Miami (OH) would earn 3 points of the possible 6 on the weekend.
#3 Denver would take care of Omaha with a 4-1 victory to earn the conference’s only sweep of the weekend. Kristian Epperson would wrap up his two-goal weekend for the Pioneers with an empty-net goal late in the 3rd period. With the sweep, Denver would take all 6 points possible this weekend.
In the United States Hockey Hall of Fame game down in Cedar Park, Texas, just outside of Austin, we saw #4 Michigan State take on #8 North Dakota. This was the first-ever Division 1 hockey game played in the Austin, Texas, area. The game didn’t disappoint; it was back-and-forth until the end, when Michigan State won 5-3.
The final matchup of Halloween weekend saw #7 Minnesota Duluth taking on #9 Colorado College. The game was scoreless going into the 2nd period, and that’s when Colorado College finally came alive, scoring 4 goals, including 2 by Bret Link. Minnesota Duluth made it a 1-goal game late in the 3rd, but Colorado College sealed the victory with an empty-net goal at 19:33 of the 3rd period to secure its 5-3 win. Each team took 3 of the 6 available points this weekend.
Rankings
The new rankings were released on Monday, and here is how they look heading into this weekend’s games.
The USCHO is as follows: Denver drops 1 spot to #4. Western Michigan moves up one spot from #6 to #5. Minnesota Duluth moves up 1 spot from #7 to #6. North Dakota drops 2 spots from #8 to #10. Colorado College would drop 2 spots as well, from #9 to #11. Teams receiving votes are Miami (OH), Arizona State, and St. Cloud State.
The US Hockey poll is as follows: Denver drops 1 spot from #3 to #4. Western Michigan stays put at #5. Minnesota Duluth stays at #7. North Dakota drops 2 spots from #8 to #10. Colorado College drops 1 spot from #10 to #11. Miami (OH) and Arizona State received votes.
Following the first weekend of NCHC conference play, the standings are as follows: Denver is 2-0-0 with 6 points. Arizona State, Colorado College, Miami (OH), Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State, and St. Thomas are all 1-1-0 with 3 points. North Dakota and Western Michigan have not yet played an NCHC game. Omaha is 0-2-0 with 0 points.
Closing
What an opening weekend for the NCHC conference play. If this is how the first weekend of conference play goes, we are in for a fun ride for the rest of the 23 weeks of conference action.
What’s in store for us this coming weekend? Check out the next article on Thursday/Friday right here on TeamNBSMedia.
In this article, we will look ahead to all the action coming up, along with the Players of the Week for October 26-November 1st. Will any players I mentioned in this article take home weekly honors in the NCHC? Find out in the next article, along with everything else happening in the NCHC. Talk to you all soon.
