2025-26 University of North Dakota Hockey Season

[nascar99]

19 hours ago, TwamleyShuffle said:

Any chance not winning a world juniors medal causes any of our 4 world junior players to want to return? From my perspective. I think all four of our world juniors players would benefit from another year. 
 

EJ could benefit from a year of gaining more of an offensive side of things. Don’t see him playing many NHL minutes next year if the likelihood of him scoring are low

 

The Rangers have gotten a bit smarter. They know their prospects development in both New York and Hartford has not been great for a long time now. Their best players have developed elsewhere and/or spent longer periods of time in the NCAA. The Rangers Director of Amateur Scouting said when they drafted him that they weren't going to rush Emery and were prepared to keep him in Grand Forks for at least 2, but potentially 3 years. Emery needs a 3rd year, or otherwise he's riding buses to Utica, Syracuse, Springfield, etc.

[siouxkid12]

1 hour ago, Sioux90 said:

I’ll piggyback the whole goal celebration thing. Our student section has lacked energy for years. There’s nothing unique for chants, sits in silence most of the game, and just doesn’t bring that overwhelming presence. The Ralph can be very stale. 

It's stale because that's what the Ralph wants, it's not the students. You should've seen it when they opened the Ralph and how they handcuffed the students, it was awful.

[.357]

1 hour ago, beastandco said:

Notre Dame has the potential to be an NPI killer for some of these top Big Ten teams. If they can pick up a few wins against Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, that will help UND and the rest of the NCH out a lot. 
 

 

A WMU team missing its top 2 D-men swept them pretty easily in their home rink last weekend; 4-0, 4-0.

[atxsioux]

1 hour ago, Sioux90 said:

I’ll piggyback the whole goal celebration thing. Our student section has lacked energy for years. There’s nothing unique for chants, sits in silence most of the game, and just doesn’t bring that overwhelming presence. The Ralph can be very stale. 

The student section lacks a little bit agreed. Outside of the student section though, the average age of typical attendees skews a little bit older at the Ralph it seems, would assume that may change in the coming years. (more or less, younger the crowd the more rowdy in theory)

[atxsioux]

4 minutes ago, .357 said:

A WMU team missing its top 2 D-men swept them pretty easily in their home rink last weekend; 4-0, 4-0.

Counterpoint. Notre Dame was missing Kempf along with some Spengler cup players for one if not both of those games.

 

WMU also plays with more structure than I would say Penn State and the Gophers so its an easier game for WMU than it will be for Penn State/Gophers IMO

[cberkas]

11 minutes ago, .357 said:

A WMU team missing its top 2 D-men swept them pretty easily in their home rink last weekend; 4-0, 4-0.

Notre Dame plain sucks, like Wisconsin with Tony bad, Michigan State with Anastos and Cole bad.

Western Michigan could have played their #3 goalie and beat them.

[Sioux90]

2 hours ago, siouxkid12 said:

It's stale because that's what the Ralph wants, it's not the students. You should've seen it when they opened the Ralph and how they handcuffed the students, it was awful.

I was just a kid at the old Ralph, but I remember quite a different atmosphere.

[Sioux90]

2 hours ago, atxsioux said:

The student section lacks a little bit agreed. Outside of the student section though, the average age of typical attendees skews a little bit older at the Ralph it seems, would assume that may change in the coming years. (more or less, younger the crowd the more rowdy in theory)

Pricing? Are we pushing the hardcore fans out to the bars or at home? The games are more accessible these days, for sure.

[SuhakiYeahYeah]

8 hours ago, gfhockey said:

They did the arm movements too?

FYI, it's not the finger in this air thing we do, it's this one, which is pretty funny

[siouxkid12]

1 hour ago, Sioux90 said:

I was just a kid at the old Ralph, but I remember quite a different atmosphere.

You are right, the old Ralph had a much more different atmosphere then the new Ralph. However, that’s not necessarily due to the students as the issue lies with the REA and the “social gatherers” that go to the games.

[Washburn Sioux]

The "Old" Ralph was smaller which allowed for the crowd to get loud, and players and fans could get away with more stuff.

In the "New" Ralph, its a lot harder to get the place rocking, plus both the players and fans can't get away with things they used too.

I remember a "Beat "em Up, Beat "em Up!!" chant from the Old Ralph that helped get it going. Additionally every team had an enforcer back then, and fighting wasn't as forbidden.

[thUNDer]

Absolutely, bad blood was literal & figurative, different game & atmosphere back in the days.

[TwamleyShuffle]

Students today get told by the ushers to sit

[siouxkid12]

9 minutes ago, TwamleyShuffle said:

Students today get told by the ushers to sit

That’s been told to the students ever since it opened, it’s not new.

[Und Princess]

Good Evening my fellow UND fans!!! I hope you had a fantastic Monday! I just released my newest blog regarding Spunar and Livanavage receiving NCHC Monthly Honors for December! I hope you enjoy reading it! https://ftstspotlight.blogspot.com/2026/01/from-rink-to-spotlight-2-hockey-players.html?m=1

Have a Fantastic Night!

Und Princess 

[nodakvindy]

5 hours ago, Sioux90 said:

I was just a kid at the old Ralph, but I remember quite a different atmosphere.

Blue collar fans got priced out for the wine and cheese gang just there to be seen. 

[brianvf]

Reschny and Verhoeff looking to use their experience at WJC for the rest of this UND season:

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/unds-canadian-medalists-eager-to-apply-lessons-learned-at-world-juniors

Also a mention of MacKenzie for next year.

Quote

"As one of the younger guys, I saw I can be a leader," said Reschny, a UND freshman forward. "I can play in the big moments. It's a big confidence-builder for me. But I am looking forward to going back and having a big second half and trying to do whatever I can to help the team win a national championship."

Quote

"It's an exciting time, a new experience and new beginnings," MacKenzie said. "I'm pumped about it. I can't say enough good things about my visit down in NoDak. But to finish off the year, I'm all-in on the Oil Kings and I want to go as far as I can with the Oil Kings."

 

[.357]

3 hours ago, brianvf said:

Reschny and Verhoeff looking to use their experience at WJC for the rest of this UND season:

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/unds-canadian-medalists-eager-to-apply-lessons-learned-at-world-juniors

Also a mention of MacKenzie for next year.

 

Reschny elevates everyone around him when the stakes are high; it's very difficult to win a title without a guy like him who drives the team. 

My only issue with this team is its continued tendency to start slow or disappear for large stretches in games. Jackson noted this in his post-game press conference Saturday night when he pointed out that UND didn't come to play for the first 10 minutes against Mercyhurst. It's already the second half of the season, so not sure why this team continues with this kind of nonchalant or lackadaisical play at times, similar to the past 2 years.

If memory serves me correctly, he did promise at his opening presser after his hire that fans could expect a brand of hockey that is fast & hard every game. To date that is yet to materialize. For some reason, the players haven't internalized this mindset yet, & it appears that they think they can just turn it on whenever they feel like it without risking losing the game.

[brianvf]

1 hour ago, .357 said:

My only issue with this team is its continued tendency to start slow or disappear for large stretches in games. Jackson noted this in his post-game press conference Saturday night when he pointed out that UND didn't come to play for the first 10 minutes against Mercyhurst. It's already the second half of the season, so not sure why this team continues with this kind of nonchalant or lackadaisical play at times, similar to the past 2 years.

If memory serves me correctly, he did promise at his opening presser after his hire that fans could expect a brand of hockey that is fast & hard every shift, every game. To date that is yet to materialize. For some reason, the players haven't internalized this mindset yet, & it appears that they think they can just turn it on whenever they feel like it without risking losing the game.

I notice a pretty distinct difference in hardness, quickness, and play compared to the last couple seasons.
It's impossible for any team to be dominant every shift of every game...not even the 80's USSR teams did that.   
That said, they've had a couple lapses from time to time.  They're still a very young team that appears to be building and getting better.  I like what I see, for the vast majority.

And I'm willing to give them a pass for that first 10min against Mercyhurst.  They had two guys that flew in from overseas playing, plus two more guys that just completed their WJC games the day before, plus two more big minute guys out still playing at the WJC.

[tnt]

3 hours ago, .357 said:

Reschny elevates everyone around him when the stakes are high; it's very difficult to win a title without a guy like him who drives the team. 

My only issue with this team is its continued tendency to start slow or disappear for large stretches in games. Jackson noted this in his post-game press conference Saturday night when he pointed out that UND didn't come to play for the first 10 minutes against Mercyhurst. It's already the second half of the season, so not sure why this team continues with this kind of nonchalant or lackadaisical play at times, similar to the past 2 years.

If memory serves me correctly, he did promise at his opening presser after his hire that fans could expect a brand of hockey that is fast & hard every game. To date that is yet to materialize. For some reason, the players haven't internalized this mindset yet, & it appears that they think they can just turn it on whenever they feel like it without risking losing the game.

There are going to be times in every game where the other team sets you back on your feet a bit.  I think Reschny and Verhoeff see how hard it is for an ultra talented team like the Canadian World Juniors to always be on top of the other team.

Like Hennessey always says, “the other team has good players too”, and even when they don’t have a lot, like Mercyhurst, sometime just the variation in age and maturity can level things out here and there. 
 

With the bigger pool of players to choose from in the CHL, it will get even harder to dominate for long lengths of a game.  There are so many players I’ve seen watching some of these games that have the “it” factor.  
 

If we are nitpicking a weekend where UND was missing key players, with others being exhausted, and another under the weather, yet still held a team to, was it 18 shots on the weekend, while we had 85+ shots on net with another 35 or so blocked, we are doing exactly that — nitpicking.

It is Jackson’s job to get his team on edge as much of the game as possible, and love that he calls out bad patches of the game, but as others have said no game is going to be perfect, and the other team, no matter the disparity in talent will have stretches of zone time and chances from that.

[burd]

20 hours ago, nodakvindy said:

Blue collar fans got priced out for the wine and cheese gang just there to be seen. 

As someone who started their student section days at the old barn, I can tell you that we were excited to have the new building but a little disappointed that the atmosphere was more comfortable, less active, and quieter.   The on-ice product wasn’t very good in the early-to-mid-seventies, though, so there’s that. 

[hockeytherapy13]

4 hours ago, .357 said:

Reschny elevates everyone around him when the stakes are high; it's very difficult to win a title without a guy like him who drives the team. 

My only issue with this team is its continued tendency to start slow or disappear for large stretches in games. Jackson noted this in his post-game press conference Saturday night when he pointed out that UND didn't come to play for the first 10 minutes against Mercyhurst. It's already the second half of the season, so not sure why this team continues with this kind of nonchalant or lackadaisical play at times, similar to the past 2 years.

If memory serves me correctly, he did promise at his opening presser after his hire that fans could expect a brand of hockey that is fast & hard every game. To date that is yet to materialize. For some reason, the players haven't internalized this mindset yet, & it appears that they think they can just turn it on whenever they feel like it without risking losing the game.

You can't be serious. Do you really not see a change or are you just upset that we've had some mental lapses here and there? There is a remarkable difference in the way this team plays compared to the past 4ish years. They find a way to score first almost every game and even most of the games they don't score first, they get the goal back in short order. When they are up by 1 they look like a team that is down by 2. Even when they are up by 2-3 They don't sit back and hold the line, they keep forechecking hard and often build their lead. The identity of this team is light years away from what we saw the last few seasons

[.357]

1 hour ago, tnt said:

There are going to be times in every game where the other team sets you back on your feet a bit.  I think Reschny and Verhoeff see how hard it is for an ultra talented team like the Canadian World Juniors to always be on top of the other team.

Like Hennessey always says, “the other team has good players too”, and even when they don’t have a lot, like Mercyhurst, sometime just the variation in age and maturity can level things out here and there. 
 

With the bigger pool of players to choose from in the CHL, it will get even harder to dominate for long lengths of a game.  There are so many players I’ve seen watching some of these games that have the “it” factor.  
 

If we are nitpicking a weekend where UND was missing key players, with others being exhausted, and another under the weather, yet still held a team to, was it 18 shots on the weekend, while we had 85+ shots on net with another 35 or so blocked, we are doing exactly that — nitpicking.

It is Jackson’s job to get his team on edge as much of the game as possible, and love that he calls out bad patches of the game, but as others have said no game is going to be perfect, and the other team, no matter the disparity in talent will have stretches of zone time and chances from that.

Valid points. Rarely if ever can a team control a game in its entirely, especially in today's college hockey landscape. That's a given.

But Jackson had a different take after Saturday's game. It's not that UND, in his words, was being dominated, but that they didn't come ready to play at the drop of the puck. Therein lies the difference. If a team can take over in the 2nd & 3rd periods but not come ready to play for 10 minutes at the start of the game, that indicates not fatigue or the ebbs & flows of a game, but a mentality that is sometimes reminiscent of the previous 2 years. So far it hasn't bitten them in the ass.

  

[fightingsioux4life]

4 minutes ago, .357 said:

Valid points. Rarely if ever can a team control a game in its entirely, especially in today's college hockey landscape. That's a given.

But Jackson had a different take after Saturday's game. It's not that UND, in his words, was being dominated, but that they didn't come ready to play at the drop of the puck. Therein lies the difference. If a team can take over in the 2nd & 3rd periods but not come ready to play for 10 minutes at the start of the game, that indicates not fatigue or the ebbs & flows of a game, but a mentality that is sometimes reminiscent of the previous 2 years. So far it hasn't bitten them in the ass.

I think the long term goal is to be playing the best at tournament time. I think Jackson will have them ready for the playoffs.

[tnt]

46 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

I think the long term goal is to be playing the best at tournament time. I think Jackson will have them ready for the playoffs.

Yes, I know there have been plenty of times when Denver has been very lackluster in their championship years, but they played the complete opposite during their run.  Remember how many goals their one team was giving up, but then they didn’t give up more than one in any tourney game in winning the championship. 
 

The problem with many of Berry’s teams is that they didn’t play well enough to make the tournament, or that when they did they weren’t dialed in when they made the tournament and were ousted right away many times.