NFL
By: Jason Gulden
After an amazing college hockey season that ended in early April with Denver University winning the NCAA title, we are back.
As we sit here on July 1st, people in Canada are celebrating Canada Day, and in the United States, Independence Day is on the 4th; it’s a big day in college sports.
New Member
Today is realignment day across college sports. It’s a bigger day in college football as the Pac-12 expands, with multiple teams moving from the Mountain West to the Conference. Teams are also joining the Mountain West from other conferences.
However, we’re not here to discuss college football. Today is a significant day for the NCHC, as it adds its tenth team, the St. Thomas University Tommies of St. Paul, Minnesota, to the conference.
St. Thomas joins the NCHC from the CCHA, Central Collegiate Hockey Association, where over the last 3 seasons, they have finished in the top 3 in the regular season. Last season, they went 15-7-4 in conference play and 21-12-5 overall. They were ranked multiple weeks last season, with their highest being 15th in the USCHO poll. They would lose in the conference championship game by the score of 4-1 to Minnesota State.
Last season, they faced off against 2 of our teams in the regular season. They had a home-and-home series with St. Cloud. Unfortunately for St. Cloud, St. Thomas would win both games in the series. The first game was on opening weekend when they won 4-3 at St. Cloud State. The second game of the series took place on November 11th at St. Thomas, where they would win 3-1 to complete the sweep of St. Cloud State and earn their first-ever victory at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena.
The other series was also a home-and-home series against future Penrose Cup champs North Dakota. That series took place on October 10th and October 12th. The October 10th game took place in North Dakota, and the Fighting Hawks would control the game with a 6-2 victory.
A couple of days later, on the 12th, they would face off at St. Thomas in St. Thomas’s last home game before opening the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena. St. Thomas would fall again to the Fighting Hawks. This outcome was 5-2.
They played their first game at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena on October 24th, which is located on campus in St. Paul, Minnesota. This will be the second year the arena has been open.
They join former CCHA members Western Michigan, Miami (OH) University, and the University of Nebraska Omaha in the NCHC.
As an official writer of the NCHC on Team NBS Media, I want to welcome you guys to the conference and look forward to covering your team this season and beyond.
NCHC Playoffs
With the new addition to the conference, the NCHC playoff format will also change this season. Unlike last season, when Arizona State missed the playoffs by 2 points, all teams will make the playoffs from now on.
All the games will still be played on campus, with the first round remaining a best-of-3, with the higher seed hosting. The playoffs will take place over 3 weekends, with the conference championship game on March 19th or 20th.
Don’t worry, NCHC fans. You don’t need to remember all that information about the postseason tournament. I will keep you guys informed about everything as we get closer to the end of the regular season in February.
Trio of NCHC join an Elite Club.
A couple of weeks ago, we saw the end of the NHL season when the Carolina Hurricanes took on the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup final. The Hurricanes would win the Stanley Cup in 6 games.
This is the 1st time in history that the NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship and the NHL’s Stanley Cup were handed out on the same ice during the same hockey season, as Denver won the NCAA championship on April 11th and Carolina won the Cup on June 14th. Both took place on the T-Mobile Arena ice in Las Vegas.
Carolina had three players who played in the NCHC and won the Cup.
Jackson Blake, a forward from North Dakota, played for the Fighting Hawks for 2 seasons between 2022 and 2024. In the 2026 playoffs, he played 19 games and finished with 20 points. He would have 7 goals and 13 assists during the playoffs. In the clinching Game 6, he would tally a goal and an assist.
Brandon Bussi, a goaltender from Western Michigan, played for the Broncos for 3 seasons between 2019 and 2022. He only played in 4 games during the playoffs, and he made them count. He would come into relief in Game 3 with his team trailing and would stop 18 saves before the Hurricanes would fall in double overtime, 5-4.
In Games 4 through 6, it was Bussi in the net for Carolina, and the Hurricanes wouldn’t lose another game in the series. Game 6 was capped off with a 3-0 shutout and a 22-save performance.
Bussi became the 3rd NHL goalie in history to record a Stanley Cup-clinching shutout in his first NHL season. This feat hadn’t been done since 1937. He also became the 2nd undrafted goaltender to record a shutout in the Cup-clinching game since 1975.
The last NCHC alum on the Hurricanes to win the Cup this season has a special place in my heart. As you might know, I’m a Colorado College fan, and I had the privilege of watching defenseman Jaccob Slavin play for the Tigers between 2013 and 2015. In the 2013-2014 season, he was named the inaugural NCHC Rookie of the Year.
Jaccob Slavin didn’t have big numbers in terms of scoring for the Hurricanes during the postseason, as he only had 5 assists in 19 games.
He, however, made things count elsewhere. Slavin averaged 23:31 time on the ice during the playoffs, which was second on the team while posting a +4 plus/minus. The defenseman helped Carolina to a 91.5% penalty kill during the playoffs.
Slavin also became the 2nd American to win the Stanley Cup and the Olympic Gold Medal in the same season. The last happened with the Miracle on Ice team when Ken Morrow accomplished that feat. Slavin is also the 5th American to win both in his career, and the 9th player to win the Cup and Olympic gold for any country in the same year.
Congrats to Blake, Bussi, and Slavin for etching your names on the most famous trophy in the world, the Stanley Cup. Enjoy your day, you have with it. All three of you deserve it.
Closing
Well, NCHC hockey fans, we are halfway through the offseason. Before you know it, players will be returning to campus to start the fall schedule in the classroom, and all the beautiful arenas across the conference will start laying the ice on top of the cement, and the puck will drop in the first weekend in October when we get the 2026-2027 season underway.
I will be back in mid-September to preview the upcoming NCHC season.
Until then, NCHC hockey fans, please stay safe, stay cool, and enjoy your holiday weekend and the rest of the summer months.
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