2025-26 University of North Dakota Hockey Season

[tnt]

4 hours ago, Big Green said:

Not what I'm saying at all, just pointing out the facts.  Looking at our schedule before the season it actually looks about right, it just turned out that a lot of the teams we played are having down years.  The schedule has 2 home and home with teams within easy driving distance, a cupcake coming back from Winter break, a decent ECHC Team, and a long time rival.  Turns out not much room for Error when this happens.  Currently losing at home to a bad MN team is costing us the #1 overall seed.

 

No, I know you were only pointing out that’s how it turned out, and just to be upfront, with our league I’m not opposed to having some games where the odds of winning are more skewed to UND, and I want to win National Championships so the higher percent chance you can beat a team, the better. Nobody asks who you beat along the way, as long as you have the hardware in your trophy case.

[Brett0909]

3 hours ago, sioux rube said:

 

Love it. 

The most interesting part to me is Jan comes in as a strong but not elite recruit in the first year in recent history that UND doesn’t have a (NCAA championship winning) goalie coach on the bench…and they finally get back to having a top goalie, the first to win it as a freshman no less. After years of poaching proven goalies from other teams, with mixed results…who often regressed here vs. their prior teams. 

I wouldn’t have guessed it would play out this way after Karl’s departure but Jax just keeps showing he knows exactly what needed to be done.

Congrats to Jan and team. Just a couple more boxes to check!

[sioux rube]

 

[brianvf]

Nice congrats to Cole!

He had a great FR season...with hopefully more to come.
Can't wait to see how he progresses in his Soph season.

[brianvf]

Congrats to Dane on getting Coach of the Year!

[cberkas]

I haven't liked how the NCHC had done the awards this year, announcing them randomly through the week.

[Dustin]

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/dane-jackson-named-nchc-herb-brooks-coach-of-the-year

"When Dane Jackson was named head coach on the evening of March 29, he didn't have much time to enjoy the moment.

He inherited a decimated roster, and rival teams were working to get even more players in the portal. It looked bleak in the moment, but it didn't turn out that way."

What a brilliant turnaround.  You know what would be a nice first year anniversary gift - a trip to Las Vegas.

[Wilbur]

Glad that things have worked out with Jax taking over for Berry.  I hope something that doesn't get overlooked by some is the people that were brought in.  Smaby is a no BS guy who will likely be a head coach somewhere.  They brought in JPL to coach the goaltenders and low and behold we've got the NCHC goaltender of the year.  Brynn Chyzyk comes in as the GM and it seems to me like we've got a good pipeline of kids coming in to where we shouldn't have to rely on the portal. 

Yeah we probably hurt some feelings with letting go of KG and Berry, but the moves were necessary and I hope our AD acts in a similar fashion with all sports needing a change of culture.   

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

1 hour ago, cberkas said:

I haven't liked how the NCHC had done the awards this year, announcing them randomly through the week.

You articulated what my thoughts have been about this as well, it seems so random and shotgunned out there.  I guess that's one of the downsides not having a centralized conference tournament with most teams and media members attending.

[cberkas]

36 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

You articulated what my thoughts have been about this as well, it seems so random and shotgunned out there.  I guess that's one of the downsides not having a centralized conference tournament with most teams and media members attending.

I'm leaning more and more to single elimination at the Penrose winner. Like the Red Baron Final Five

[RedFrog]

Any update on Ollie's injury status?

[The Sicatoka]

5 hours ago, brianvf said:

Congrats to Dane on getting Coach of the Year!

This will sound like blasphemy, but did Miami-guy get jobbed? He'd better been a close second,  

[SIOUXELEVENS]

No weekly press conf ?

[brianvf]

9 minutes ago, SIOUXELEVENS said:

No weekly press conf ?

I guess not since no game this weekend?

[nascar99]

F***

 

[brianvf]

What a shocker.  Play UMD in the playoffs, and they injure one of our players.
It happens far too often for it to be just a coincidence at this point.

[fightingsioux4life]

5 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

F***

 

Well, that's why you want depth in a contact sport like hockey.

[brianvf]

This is good at least:

Quote

If there's a bright spot for UND, it's that Jack Kernan has returned to practice after missing Saturday's NCHC semifinal due to an illness. Kernan was a full go on Wednesday.

 

[nascar99]

2 minutes ago, brianvf said:

This is good at least:

 

Kernan's absence was very visible on Saturday. He's surprised me all season, didn't expect him to be this solid & this NCAA ready right away

[farce poobah]

5 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Glad that things have worked out with Jax taking over for Berry.  I hope something that doesn't get overlooked by some is the people that were brought in.  Smaby is a no BS guy who will likely be a head coach somewhere.  They brought in JPL to coach the goaltenders and low and behold we've got the NCHC goaltender of the year.  Brynn Chyzyk comes in as the GM and it seems to me like we've got a good pipeline of kids coming in to where we shouldn't have to rely on the portal. 

Yeah we probably hurt some feelings with letting go of KG and Berry, but the moves were necessary and I hope our AD acts in a similar fashion with all sports needing a change of culture.   

I look forward to the day when awards ALSO for:

* Assistant Coach / coaching staff

*  General Manager

And yes, our guys would be shoo-ins for those awards this year.

[tnt]

2 hours ago, brianvf said:

What a shocker.  Play UMD in the playoffs, and they injure one of our players.
It happens far too often for it to be just a coincidence at this point.

What do you expect, his line had done a decent job on the Plantes in the past.

[Sweethockey]

6 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Glad that things have worked out with Jax taking over for Berry.  I hope something that doesn't get overlooked by some is the people that were brought in.  Smaby is a no BS guy who will likely be a head coach somewhere.  They brought in JPL to coach the goaltenders and low and behold we've got the NCHC goaltender of the year.  Brynn Chyzyk comes in as the GM and it seems to me like we've got a good pipeline of kids coming in to where we shouldn't have to rely on the portal. 

Yeah we probably hurt some feelings with letting go of KG and Berry, but the moves were necessary and I hope our AD acts in a similar fashion with all sports needing a change of culture.   

Very good points, Wilbur! As far as hurt feelings, so be it. This game and school are a passion of ours, but with NIL it has turned into a business and a product. The inner workings of the business end has turned out a very high value product. It wouldn't be in the place now without the group that Dane has assembled. Kudos to Dane!

[hockeytherapy13]

Let’s play the “build the line chart” game to take our minds off the infuriating fact that Ollie is out.  

Stating the obvious- it’s a Major loss with him being such a great two-way player, great in the faceoff dot,  and was starting to heat up offensively. Already playing multiple roles including PP, PK, and being able to shutdown teams’ top lines. However,We are spoiled to have Kernan as the one who will (probably) pop into the 3rd line center.  

Do we try to build another formal shutdown line? Guessing the 4th line will have less TOI than usual with longer TV timeouts. I’m conflicted on where James and Zakreski end up so I’ll throw darts at the board and ask you all to clean up what I miss.

James-Rickwood-Zellers

Swanson-Reschny-Strinden

Croal-Kernan-Zakreski

Menghini-Littler-Young

[SuhakiYeahYeah]

1 minute ago, hockeytherapy13 said:

Let’s play the “build the line chart” game to take our minds off the infuriating fact that Ollie is out.  

Stating the obvious- it’s a Major loss with him being such a great two-way player, great in the faceoff dot,  and was starting to heat up offensively. Already playing multiple roles including PP, PK, and being able to shutdown teams’ top lines. However,We are spoiled to have Kernan as the one who will (probably) pop into the 3rd line center.  

Do we try to build another formal shutdown line? Guessing the 4th line will have less TOI than usual with longer TV timeouts. I’m conflicted on where James and Zakreski end up so I’ll throw darts at the board and ask you all to clean up what I miss.

James-Rickwood-Zellers

Swanson-Reschny-Strinden

Croal-Kernan-Zakreski

Menghini-Littler-Young

THIS is why depth is so important. Didn't lose an ounce of confidence in this lineup even without Josephson.

[nodakvindy]

9 hours ago, cberkas said:

I haven't liked how the NCHC had done the awards this year, announcing them randomly through the week.

It would be ok of they had announced ahead of time a schedule like MLB does, but yeah this has just seemed random.