NFL
By Jason Gulden
After an exciting opening weekend of the 2025-2026 NCHC hockey season, we get to do it again with a 4-day weekend worth of games. Before we get into this weekend’s games, there are a couple of things we need to take care of before then. We need to discuss the players of the week for last weekend and look at the latest poll for college hockey.
Each week in the weekend preview article, we will look at the NCHC players of the week for the previous week, as announced by the NCHC. This week, 2 teams were honored in the awards.
After earning the sweep in Alaska, Minnesota Duluth runs away with 3 of the 4 awards. The first award was the Forward of the Week. This week, it belongs to Max Plante, a sophomore Forward. Against Alaska, he had 2 goals and 2 assists for a 4-point weekend, which is good for a tie at the top of the NCHC scoring lead. Defenseman of the Week goes to Sophomore Ty Hanson. He had 1 goal and 1 assist on the weekend. He anchored Duluth’s penalty kill by helping them kill all 9 power plays Alaska had on the weekend. The Goaltender of the Week goes to Sophomore Adam Gajan. He only allowed 2 goals all weekend for a .951 save percentage and a 1.00 goals against average. Both stats lead the NCHC after the first weekend of games.
The 4th and final award of the weekend was Rookie of the Week, and that went to Miami (OH) freshman Justin Stupka. In his first college weekend, he tallied 2 goals. Friday night, he scored the game-winning goal, and then Saturday night scored 16 seconds into the game. I would have to say that’s a pretty good way to start your collegiate career.
Will any of your teams’ players win the honors this coming weekend? Check back next week to find out.
Now, let’s look at the rankings for the second week of the college hockey season. These rankings are provided by USCHO.
USCHO Division I Men’s Poll – October 6, 2025
| Rnk | Team | (First Place Votes) | Record | Pts | Last Poll |
| 1 | Western Michigan | (32) | 0-0-0 | 943 | 1 |
| 2 | Michigan State | (11) | 0-0-0 | 906 | 3 |
| 3 | Boston University | (2) | 1-0-0 | 895 | 2 |
| 4 | Penn State | (4) | 2-0-0 | 890 | 5 |
| 5 | Denver | 0-0-0 | 811 | 4 | |
| 6 | Maine | 0-0-0 | 653 | 7 | |
| 7 | Providence | 0-0-0 | 572 | 9 | |
| 8 | Quinnipiac | 1-0-0 | 561 | 13 | |
| 9 | Michigan | (1) | 2-0-0 | 553 | 12 |
| 10 | North Dakota | 0-0-0 | 551 | 11 | |
| 11 | Boston College | 0-1-0 | 541 | 6 | |
| 12 | Minnesota | 1-1-0 | 478 | 8 | |
| 13 | Connecticut | 1-1-0 | 468 | 10 | |
| 14 | Massachusetts | 2-0-0 | 387 | 15 | |
| 15 | Arizona State | 0-2-0 | 229 | 14 | |
| 16 | Ohio State | 0-0-0 | 216 | 16 | |
| 17 | Cornell | 0-0-0 | 177 | 17 | |
| 18 | Wisconsin | 2-0-0 | 144 | 20 | |
| 19 | St. Thomas | 1-0-0 | 143 | 19 | |
| 20 | Minnesota State | 0-0-0 | 117 | 18 |
Others receiving votes: Colorado College 92, Michigan Tech 40, UMass Lowell 26, Minnesota Duluth 25, Northeastern 17, Bemidji State 13, Sacred Heart 10, St. Cloud State 7, Omaha 6, Bowling Green 5, Dartmouth 5, Bentley 4, Brown 4, Clarkson 3, Harvard 3, Canisius 2, Notre Dame 2, Augustana 1
This coming weekend, we have multiple home and home series. We have Ferris State playing Western Michigan. The Thursday game is at Western Michigan, and then the Friday night game is at Ferris State. On Friday and Saturday, we have St. Cloud State and Bemidji State playing. Friday’s game is at Bemidji State, and then Saturday is at St. Cloud State. The last home and home series this weekend puts St. Thomas and North Dakota against each other. Friday night game is at North Dakota, and then Sunday game is played at St. Thomas.
We have our first tournament of the 2025-2026 season featuring an NCHC team. The Ice Breaker Tournament will feature Notre Dame, Arizona State, Alaska-Fairbanks, and Quinnipiac. On Friday night, Arizona State plays Notre Dame. Alaska-Fairbanks plays Quinnipiac. Saturday games will be determined by the results from Friday night’s games. Arizona State will play either Alaska-Fairbanks or Quinnipiac.
On Friday night, we have Denver University hopping on a bus and traveling 55 miles south to Colorado Springs, to take on Air Force. On the same night, Colorado College will welcome Bentley to their campus. Following those games on Friday night, Bentley and Denver University will hop on the bus and drive 55 miles back up to Denver, and will face off on Saturday night on the campus of Denver University. While that game is being played in Denver on Saturday, Colorado College and Air Force will renew their in-town rivalry as they meet for the 86th time. Colorado College, along with the Pikes Peak Trophy, will take a short bus trip for a 9-mile ride on Interstate 25 North to the Air Force Academy. Will Colorado College bring the trophy back to campus Saturday night for the 8th straight season?
The final games of the weekend will be the normal games, where one team will be the home team on Friday and Saturday. We have Miami (OH) looking to double its win total on the season when they travel to Troy, New York, to take on RPI. We have Minnesota State traveling to Omaha, Nebraska, to take on Omaha. The last series of the weekend will have Augustana traveling to Minnesota Duluth. Will Augustana give another NCHC opponent a fit after their tie last Friday against St. Cloud?
Well, that’s a wrap for the look at this weekend’s games. What will the answers be to the questions I asked in the article? Only one way to find out. Come back next week when we look back at those results. Talk to all of you NCHC fans then.
