2025-26 University of North Dakota Hockey Season

[beastandco]

Looking into the Spengler Cup and I find it hard to believe that Livanavage and Wiebe will not be playing the Mercyhurst series. Their last guaranteed game is on Decembers 28th. If they make it to the finals, their game will start at 5:00 am central time on December 31st. 
 

I think at the very least they could get back at 24 hours before puck drop if need be. I would be very surprised if they weren’t at least available to play. If they play in the finals, they’ll have 55+ hours to get back.

[Sioux90]

11 minutes ago, beastandco said:

Looking into the Spengler Cup and I find it hard to believe that Livanavage and Wiebe will not be playing the Mercyhurst series. Their last guaranteed game is on Decembers 28th. If they make it to the finals, their game will start at 5:00 am central time on December 31st. 
 

I think at the very least they could get back at 24 hours before puck drop if need be. I would be very surprised if they weren’t at least available to play. If they play in the finals, they’ll have 55+ hours to get back.

They’re definitely playing. 

[hockeytherapy13]

47 minutes ago, beastandco said:

Looking into the Spengler Cup and I find it hard to believe that Livanavage and Wiebe will not be playing the Mercyhurst series. Their last guaranteed game is on Decembers 28th. If they make it to the finals, their game will start at 5:00 am central time on December 31st. 
 

I think at the very least they could get back at 24 hours before puck drop if need be. I would be very surprised if they weren’t at least available to play. If they play in the finals, they’ll have 55+ hours to get back.

I think Schloss said their flight back is Jan 2nd 

[brianvf]

14 minutes ago, hockeytherapy13 said:

I think Schloss said their flight back is Jan 2nd 

Yeah I think it mainly had something to do with their return flight being Jan 2nd regardless on if the team made the finals or not.
I'm still assuming that both will play both games unless their travel gets delayed.

[.357]

14 minutes ago, brianvf said:

Yeah I think it mainly had something to do with their return flight being Jan 2nd regardless on if the team made the finals or not.
I'm still assuming that both will play both games unless their travel gets delayed.

Switzerland is 7 hrs ahead of GF. Assume they left Switzerland at 8 am on Jan. 2, on an 8-hr flight to NY or ATL, they would arrive at one of those two locations at approx. 9 am GF time, plus a couple hours to make their connecting flight would be 11 am GF time, plus 3 hr flight to Minneapolis would be 2 pm in GF, another couple hours to make connecting flight to GF would be 4 pm GF time, plus the actual flight time to GF of 1.25 hrs & they would arrive in GF at approx. 5:15 pm, disembark time of 10 min to get inside the terminal makes it 5:25 pm, 10 min. drive to REA makes it 5:35 pm. Give or take a couple hours probably. 

[brianvf]

3 minutes ago, .357 said:

Switzerland is 7 hrs ahead of GF. Assume they left Switzerland at 8 am on Jan. 2, on an 8-hr flight to NY or ATL, they would arrive at one of those two locations at approx. 9 am GF time, plus a couple hours to make their connecting flight would be 11 am GF time, plus 3 hr flight to Minneapolis would be 2 pm in GF, another couple hours to make connecting flight to GF would be 4 pm GF time, plus the actual flight time to GF of 1.25 hrs & they would arrive in GF at approx. 5:15 pm, disembark time of 10 min to get inside the terminal makes it 5:25 pm, 10 min. drive to REA makes it 5:35 pm. Give or take a couple hours probably. 

Better book the 5am departure flight in Switzerland just to be safe.   

[burd]

5 hours ago, .357 said:

Switzerland is 7 hrs ahead of GF. Assume they left Switzerland at 8 am on Jan. 2, on an 8-hr flight to NY or ATL, they would arrive at one of those two locations at approx. 9 am GF time, plus a couple hours to make their connecting flight would be 11 am GF time, plus 3 hr flight to Minneapolis would be 2 pm in GF, another couple hours to make connecting flight to GF would be 4 pm GF time, plus the actual flight time to GF of 1.25 hrs & they would arrive in GF at approx. 5:15 pm, disembark time of 10 min to get inside the terminal makes it 5:25 pm, 10 min. drive to REA makes it 5:35 pm. Give or take a couple hours probably. 

In today’s commercial air travel, that’s a lot of opportunities for things to get fouled up.  God loves Sioux hockey, though, so there’s that. 

 

 

 

[I Ranger]

12 hours ago, brianvf said:

That's good.  Good for him, he certainly deserves it and hopefully he makes the final team.

 

I wonder how this came about? Was it like last year when Max Plante wasn't originally invited (although injury played a part) and then Sandelin called and said you'd be crazy to leave him off the team? Either way some of these picks are just crazy to me! How do you pick Kvasnicka not only over Zellers and Potter originally but over a player playing in the same league that is putting up way better numbers (JP Hurlbert). And like I've mentioned before, Potter not getting selected is crazy to me. Makes me believe USA hockey is almost blackballing both Potter and Hurlbert for leaving the Program early (although Potter was selected for the U18 world tourney last spring and was the best player in the games I watched). 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2025/12/09_Team-of-the-Week-North-Dakota.php

Dane on their podcast coming out tomorrow too.

[.357]

1 hour ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2025/12/09_Team-of-the-Week-North-Dakota.php

Dane on their podcast coming out tomorrow too.

Last sentence in the article:

"Livanavage and Abram Wiebe are going to the Spengler Cup in Switzerland after Christmas, but that shouldn't affect any time with North Dakota."

[Goon]

23 hours ago, beastandco said:

Looking into the Spengler Cup and I find it hard to believe that Livanavage and Wiebe will not be playing the Mercyhurst series. Their last guaranteed game is on Decembers 28th. If they make it to the finals, their game will start at 5:00 am central time on December 31st. 
 

I think at the very least they could get back at 24 hours before puck drop if need be. I would be very surprised if they weren’t at least available to play. If they play in the finals, they’ll have 55+ hours to get back.

They're also elite athletes, so they don't need much rest. 

[Godsmack]

If anyone’s planning on getting tickets for the UND series at CC, you may want to consider looking now. There is no GA at Robson Arena so you have to buy tickets resale on Ticketmaster from season ticket holders. Currently, it looks like you can get standing room only for about $49 a game and seats as low as about $50 and upwards of $150+, depending on the location. The AD announced at the season ticket holder fan fest in September that she doesn’t want to see a bunch of North Dakota fans taking over Robson so let’s do what we can to fill the barn with as much green as possible! 

[burd]

On 12/9/2025 at 9:00 PM, Goon said:

They're also elite athletes, so they don't need much rest. 

Very true, but young hockey players view world juniors as a very big deal, and I suspect there’s an emotional drain that becomes physical.

[JacksonW]

3 hours ago, burd said:

Very true, but young hockey players view world juniors as a very big deal, and I suspect there’s an emotional drain that becomes physical.

A friends son played 3 years college hockey and 5 years in NHL and for him without a doubt the highlight of his hockey career was playing in world juniors. Nothin else compared. 

[brianvf]

WJC / UND talk:

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/cole-reschny-keaton-verhoeff-react-to-their-canada-call-and-first-half-at-und

Quote

Reschny, 18, is UND's leading scorer with two goals and 18 points. His 16 assists are the most by a UND freshman before Christmas break since Zach Parise in 2002-03. The Calgary Flames took Reschny in the first round, No. 18 overall, in the 2025 NHL Draft.

"Looking at the season, this first half was great," Reschny said. "It's all I could ask for coming here. Obviously, it was a big decision for me, my family and all the people who supported me to come here. But it's all worked out. Obviously, (I want to) have a big second half here after this Christmas break."

On undrafted MacKenzie getting an invite:

Quote

MacKenzie, a 6-foot-1 left-shot defenseman, has 31 points in 30 games.

"He's got a bit of Troy Stecher in his game for me," UND coach Dane Jackson said. "He's a really competitive gamer. It was nice to see they noticed that. They didn't care he was an undrafted guy with the step he's taken. Physically, he's put on a lot of weight and kind of grown in the last year. He's scoring points there in that league, but he also plays hard, competes and is strong defensively. It was really nice to see him get recognized."

Quote

Jackson said he called MacKenzie after his selection.

"He couldn't be more excited," Jackson said. "He said he could barely sleep after getting that call. It was kind of fun to hear that."

Six players with UND ties heading to camps:

Quote

UND has never had more than four representatives at a single World Juniors.

"It's exciting when you think of the possibility of six guys — three from Canada, three from the U.S. — between our roster and our recruits," Jackson said. "That's a huge number. I'm really excited for the guys to go in there and compete and try to earn jobs. It's exciting for our program to have that many high-end young guys considered in that way."