2025-26 University of North Dakota Hockey Season

[brianvf]

Just now, Oxbow6 said:

Strinden carried this team for a good stretch early on when this squad needed it. Insane he's not up for any NCHC award.

He can settle for Frozen Four MVP.

[stoneySIOUX]

35 minutes ago, brianvf said:

Sorry, just posted the lists that had UND players on them for finalists. 

Agreed on COY and ROY.  I think Liver gets DDOY.
I bet they give DFOY to Gross.

Definitely my fault. I lacked comprehension lol.

[brianvf]

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/bracketology-will-und-be-in-sioux-falls-for-the-regional

Quote

6. So, what scenarios could keep UND out of Sioux Falls? No. 1: If Omaha wins the NCHC and gets into the NCAA tournament, it would almost surely knock UND out of Sioux Falls. No. 2: If UND drops to a second seed and Augustana makes the tournament, the Committee could prioritize putting hometown Augustana in Sioux Falls and ship UND out. There are other scenarios, too, but if UND remains a No. 1 seed and Omaha misses the NCAAs, odds for UND in Sioux Falls will increase significantly.

7. There are still three weeks of games until the NCAA tournament bracket will be announced. The projected bracket can and will change almost every night.

This week's GFH projected bracket

Loveland Regional
1. Michigan vs. 16. Atlantic Hockey champion
8. Denver vs. 9. Cornell

Albany Regional
2. Michigan State vs. 15. UConn
7. Quinnipiac vs. 10. Duluth

Sioux Falls Regional
3. North Dakota vs. 14. Augustana
6. Providence vs. 12. Wisconsin

Worcester Regional
4. Western Michigan vs 13. Boston College
5. Penn State vs. 11. Dartmouth

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

24 minutes ago, brianvf said:

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/bracketology-will-und-be-in-sioux-falls-for-the-regional

This week's GFH projected bracket

Loveland Regional
1. Michigan vs. 16. Atlantic Hockey champion
8. Denver vs. 9. Cornell

Albany Regional
2. Michigan State vs. 15. UConn
7. Quinnipiac vs. 10. Duluth

Sioux Falls Regional
3. North Dakota vs. 14. Augustana
6. Providence vs. 12. Wisconsin

Worcester Regional
4. Western Michigan vs 13. Boston College
5. Penn State vs. 11. Dartmouth

Yes please 

[sioux rube]

 

[cowboys5xsbs]

54 minutes ago, sioux rube said:

 

We get the extra game tomorrow to pull ahead a bit 

[nodakvindy]

33 minutes ago, cowboys5xsbs said:

We get the extra game tomorrow to pull ahead a bit 

Michigan plays on Wednesday. Go Irish!

[cberkas]

1 hour ago, sioux rube said:

 

0.06

[OopsSioux]

On 3/2/2026 at 10:12 PM, Big A HG said:

Agree...but we can't have many consecutive years of one-and-dones either.  Even when Berry was winning conference titles but getting bounced, the team didn't pass the eye test for me.  But, everyone was like "we won the conference, so all is great", but you could see the writing on the wall a lot of the time.  The 2020 season that got cancelled was a great example of a season where I feel we way outperformed our actual talent.  #1 team in the country and all, but it didn't seem like a team that would go very deep in the tournament to me.

Conversely, this team passes the eye test.  All three phases of our team can win the game for us.  If they are all clicking, we're extremely dangerous.  The scary part is, I don't think all three phases have clicked at the same time, but if you could put it all together in late March and April, anything is possible for this team.

I agree mostly.  I don't want to harp on Berry but UNDs performance under his leadership seemed so lackadaisical at times.  I started watching UND hockey during the Blais years and got to enjoy the entirety of the Hakstol tenure.  Hakstol to Berry was a drastic change and not for the better. 

I know I'll get chastised for saying this but Hak simply did more with less.  Yes, I know the names of his chippahs.  His teams were known to start out slow but at the end of the year they were always there.  They were always there even when they were clearly not the most talented team.  They never won it all under his leadership but very rarely did his teams not show up and most of his teams outperformed expectations when it counted.  The teams had dignity and guts.  

Berry quite obviously lost the locker room at the end but even before that (sans year 1) the teams just seemed misguided, lost, sloppy.  Last season was a perfect example.  They may not have been the most talented team in the nation last year but very few teams had more talent than UND and they didn't even make the NCAA tournament.  I don't miss the routine no look drop passes and regular lost battles against the boards.

[Wilbur]

I get spring break, but why does no one watch the bulldogs?  Amsoil is just never close to full unless UND or Minnesota is there. 

[burd]

2 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

I get spring break, but why does no one watch the bulldogs?  Amsoil is just never close to full unless UND or Minnesota is there. 

Dogs fans discovered that Sandy was just a proxy for a UND fan/double agent whose name shall be kept secret for security purposes.   Splendid bit of under cover work.  

[sioux rube]

 

[gfhockey]

26 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

I get spring break, but why does no one watch the bulldogs?  Amsoil is just never close to full unless UND or Minnesota is there. 

They wait until natty time

[SJHovey]

Does a #1 overall seed move us out of Sioux Falls? If Augie makes it, they’d like them there, and they like the #1 seed to get the worst team, which Augie won’t be.

[nodakgirl93]

7 minutes ago, SJHovey said:

Does a #1 overall seed move us out of Sioux Falls? If Augie makes it, they’d like them there, and they like the #1 seed to get the worst team, which Augie won’t be.

Omaha is the host school. Augustana can be placed anywhere. 

[cowboys5xsbs]

31 minutes ago, SJHovey said:

Does a #1 overall seed move us out of Sioux Falls? If Augie makes it, they’d like them there, and they like the #1 seed to get the worst team, which Augie won’t be.

Yea I think the only 2 thing that move us is Omaha making the tourney and us dropping to a 4th 1 seed

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

Holy Cross winning the Atlantic tournament means they are placed in Worcester as the host. So anyone but HC in AHA is our rooting interest.

[cberkas]

6 minutes ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Holy Cross winning the Atlantic tournament means they are placed in Worcester as the host. So anyone but HC in AHA is our rooting interest.

There should be a rule that say AHA teams can’t host regionals, but since the Boston schools in Hockey East and ECAC don’t want to host the AHA gets to host. 

[tnt]

2 hours ago, gfhockey said:

They wait until natty time

So fair weather fans like yourself?

[nascar99]

Such a deep team this year. Even when it feels like they take the period off, they're just one good shift away from putting one in the back of the net.

 

Last year, felt like they had a lot of talent but couldn't generate much in terms of dangerous chances. Just so much deeper, mature, and dangerous offensively.

[Oxbow6]

10 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Such a deep team this year. Even when it feels like they take the period off, they're just one good shift away from putting one in the back of the net.

 

Last year, felt like they had a lot of talent but couldn't generate much in terms of dangerous chances. Just so much deeper, mature, and dangerous offensively.

The overall compete level this year has leveled up dramatically vs the past few years.

[Level B Fishbowl]

On 3/7/2026 at 11:12 AM, cberkas said:

There should be a rule that say AHA teams can’t host regionals, but since the Boston schools in Hockey East and ECAC don’t want to host the AHA gets to host. 

 

ECAC schools have certainly hosted. In fact, Union is the host in Albany this year and Brown has hosted at Providence in the past.

[cberkas]

2 hours ago, Level B Fishbowl said:

 

ECAC schools have certainly hosted. In fact, Union is the host in Albany this year and Brown has hosted at Providence in the past.

Most don't and they were one of two conferences that hosted instead of a team.

To host any regional, you should make the NCAAs in the last 5 years. If a regional can't get 15,000 combined scanned tickets for the weekend. That location can't host ever again. 
 

Edit: Union isn’t hosting the ECAC is

[nodakvindy]

On 3/7/2026 at 9:27 AM, SJHovey said:

Does a #1 overall seed move us out of Sioux Falls? If Augie makes it, they’d like them there, and they like the #1 seed to get the worst team, which Augie won’t be.

Ideal scenario would be Augie making it up to a 3 seed.  Probability matrix has that at around 25 percent right now. Ferris winning tonight would make things a little easier for them.

I do think though if UND were overall 1, they would get the closest site (Sioux Falls) and play AHA or other autobid and Augie would go somewhere else, probably Loveland. 

[Level B Fishbowl]

4 hours ago, cberkas said:

Most don't and they were one of two conferences that hosted instead of a team.

To host any regional, you should make the NCAAs in the last 5 years. If a regional can't get 15,000 combined scanned tickets for the weekend. That location can't host ever again. 
 

Edit: Union isn’t hosting the ECAC is

 

Where did you get that host info from? The NCAA's own website states Union as the host, rather than the conference.

As for the rest, I know there has been a lot of back and forth about regional attendance and I'm certainly not privy to all the arguments, but you'd be hard pressed to get 15,000 at any eastern regional. Many eastern schools don't even have student bodies that touch that number, and that's before you even get to alumni bases and other potential avenues of fan attendance along with on-campus attendance decline trends.

Since Albany was mentioned, let's think about potential attendance there. The biggest pulls would be Cornell (large traveling contingent and heavy alumni base in NYC with good representation throughout upstate NY and New England) and Quinnipiac (proximity and alumni base concentrated in NYC and Connecticut) as far as teams that should be in the tournament. Beyond that, it's a crapshoot given the lack of HEA teams, and all other tournament teams being farther away, so good luck even coming close to that 15,000 number.