NFL
By Jason Gulden
Hello, NCHC hockey fans. We have made it to the final weekend of the NCHC season. Saturday night, we will find out who earns the automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Hockey tournament.
The NCHC will have one automatic qualifier and no more than 3 At-Large bids.
Last Weekend
We had the semi-finals in the NCHC playoffs.
In the first Semi-final we saw Minnesota Duluth travel to North Dakota. Minnesota Duluth took no time in getting the scoring underway in the game.
At the 2:14 mark of the first period, Callum Arnott would score with the helper coming from Joey Pierce. 5 minutes later, at the 7:16 mark of the first, Max Plante would score the second goal for Minnesota Duluth with the helper coming from Ty Hanson. After the first 20 minutes, Minnesota Duluth would have a 2-0 lead over the regular-season champs.
Minnesota Duluth would take no time in the second period to score its third goal. At the 1:26 mark, Jayson Shaugabay would put Duluth up 3-0. Assist came from Callum Arnott and Luke Bibby. After 40 minutes, Duluth would be up 3-0.
North Dakota would finally get on the board at the 1:59 mark of the 3rd. Dylan James would score with assists coming from Cole Reschny and E.J. Emery. For North Dakota, unfortunately, that’s all they would score in the game.
Duluth would add 2 more goals in the 3rd. At the 8:09 mark, Harper Bentz would score with the assists coming from Adam Kleber and Zam Plante. At the 12:49 mark, Kyle Gaffney would score the last goal for Duluth. Helpers came from Luke Bibby and Riley Bodnarchuk.
Minnesota Duluth would upset the regular-season champs, North Dakota, 5-1. They now take on the winner of the Western Michigan-Denver matchup.
Speaking of the Western Michigan and Denver matchup, that game remained tied at 0 until the 13:19 mark of the third period. That’s when Western Michigan’s Garrett Szydlowski finally scored. Assists came from Bobby Cowan and Tyler MacKenzie. Just under 3 minutes later, Denver finally finds the back of the net. Boston Buckberger would get the tying goal while on the power play. Assists came from Eric Pohlkamp and James Reeder. Teams would be tied after 60 minutes of action. At the 5:48 mark in overtime, Denver’s Samu Salminen would send Denver to the conference championship game. Assists came from Rieger Lorenz and James Reeder.
Denver would beat defending conference champions Western Michigan 2-1 in Overtime.
Rankings and Bracketology
Following the outcomes featuring our 4 ranked teams, the rankings are as follows. North Dakota stayed put at #2. Denver would move up two spots to #4. Western Michigan would drop one spot to number #5. Minnesota Duluth would jump up two spots to #6.
According to the USCHO Bracketology on March 16th, following last weekend’s games, this is where our teams stand. We will have two teams in the Loveland Region. Western Michigan is the 4th overall seed and the #1 seed in the region. As I have said in previous articles, since we started looking at the bracket, Denver will also be in the region as they are the host for this region and would be the #2 seed.
North Dakota would be the #2 overall seed and #1 seed in the Sioux Falls region.
Minnesota Duluth would be the #2 seed in the Worcester Region.
Everything will come to a head on March 22nd at 3 pm EST on ESPNU when the NCAA announces the 16 teams in the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament.
The NCAA tournament will start on Thursday, March 26th.
NCHC Awards
After a successful first season as the head guy behind the bench at North Dakota that saw his team win the regular season championship, it’s only fitting that Dane Jackson would be named the NCHC Berb Brooks Coach of the Year. He led the Fighting Hawks to a 25-8-1 record. He is the 3rd North Dakota coach to earn the award and the first since 2022.
Speaking of North Dakota, that’s where the Rookie of the Year winner hails from. Cole Reschny would earn the honor this season. He scored 31 points and 26 assists in 30 games. Cole was also strong in the faceoff circle, winning 276 faceoffs with a 54.9% win rate, second among NCHC freshman centers.
This year’s Senior Scholar-Athlete Award goes to Kent Anderson from Denver. On the ice, Kent only tallied 3 points for the Pioneers on the blue line this season. He had only 12 penalty minutes and a +8 plus/minus rating. In the classroom, Kent has a 3.94 grade-point average while majoring in finance and minoring in kinesiology and sport studies.
Tyson Gross of St. Cloud State is this year’s Defensive Forward of the Year. He would have 41 points this year and 23 assists for the Huskies. His 18 goals were second best on the Huskies this season.
We have 2 more awards that the NCHC handed out this postseason. The Forward and Player of the Year honors for the 2025-2026 season go to Minnesota Duluth Max Plante. Max had himself an amazing year. He would have 48 points this year. Of those 48 points, 23 of them were goals. Both his point total and goal total were good enough for 5th in the national ranks, and he also carries a +16 plus/minus. In all the series this year, Max only failed to score a point in one of them.
Hobey Baker Award
Back in the January 27th article, “Top 4 matchup this weekend – Team NBS Media,” I announced the 18 NCHC nominees up for the award.
Altogether, there were 87 players nominated, and now we are down to the Top 10 finalists for the 2026 Hobey Baker Award.
Those finalists include 2 NCHC players. Max Plante from Minnesota Duluth and Eric Pohlkamp from the University of Denver.
They will be joined by:
- Trey Augustine, Michigan State
- James Hagens, Boston College
- TJ Hughes, University of Michigan
- Gavin McKenna, Penn State
- Hayden Stavroff, Dartmouth College
- Charlie Stramel, Michigan State
- Felix Trudeau, Sacred Heart University
- Ethan Wyttenbach, Quinnipiac University
The Hobey Hat Trick of three finalists will be announced on April 2nd at 4:15 pm ET. The Hobey Baker winner will be announced on April 10th at 8 pm ET in Las Vegas as part of the Men’s Frozen Four.
Championship Game
Starting in October, we started this journey in more than one way. The NCHC season started, and this weekend it comes to an end with the final two teams standing. Minnesota Duluth travels to Denver for the conference postseason championship.
These two teams faced off only once during the season. That series also took place in Denver in late January. Denver would win both games. Friday night, they won 4-3. On Saturday night, the teams needed overtime to determine the winner, and Denver won 1-0.
Closing
What does this weekend hold? There is only one way to find out. Grab your favorite beverage, favorite snack, your comfy chair, and enjoy the final game of the 2025-2026 NCHC season.
With the NCAA tournament starting next Thursday, I will be back with you guys on Wednesday to break down the conference championship game, preview the NCAA tournament, and fill you in on where our NCHC teams will be headed.
Until next week, NCHC fans, stay cool and enjoy the start of the final week of March.
