Alaska Fairbanks Edges Boston College

Alaska Fairbanks traveled to Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Friday night and came away with a 3-2 men's hockey victory over No. 11 Boston College in non-conference NCAA action.

Latvia native Davis Borozinskis scored both the tying and winning goals for the visiting Nanooks, who got 28 saves in goal from Tyler Shea. BC went 2-for-5 on the power play, but the Eagles couldn't get the equalizer late in dropping their home/season opener to UAF (1-2-0).

Full recap can be found here.

 

UAF Wins First United Collegiate Hockey Cup

Senior captain Chase Dafoe scored 24 seconds into 3-on-3 overtime to lift top-seeded Alaska Fairbanks to a 4-3 victory over second-seeded Lindenwood in the championship game of the inaugural United Collegiate Hockey Cup on Saturday in Missouri.

Michael Citara and Peyton Platter each recorded a goal and an assist for the victorious Nanooks (15-15-3 overall), who also got 39 saves from senior goaltender Lassi Lehti in his final appearance in a UAF uniform. Jacob Fletcher scored one goal and set up another for the host Lions (15-15-0), including the tying goal with less than three minutes remaining in regulation. Liam Beerman stopped 18 shots for Lindenwood, which outshot UAF, 42-22, at the Centene Community Ice Center. The Nanooks won 32 out of 58 total faceoffs.

Citara, defenseman Nathan Rickey and Lehti were all named to the UCHC All-Tournament team, while Lehti was also named MVP. Lehti also backstopped UAF to the Adirondack Winter Invitational championship in Lake Placid back in November. 

Long Island defeated Stonehill, 4-3, in the consolation game of the tournament, which featured all five NCAA Division I independent men's hockey programs. UAF, which had a first-round bye as the top seed, defeated Stonehill in a shootout on Friday to advance to the title game, while Lindenwood topped LIU on Thursday to earn its championship contest berth. Alaska Anchorage finished in fifth place after falling to Stonehill and LIU.

UAF Claims 15th Straight Governor's Cup

For the 15th straight time, the Alaska Airlines Governors Cup belongs to the University of (Alaska) Fairbanks.

The Nanooks sewed up their annual in-state rivalry with Alaska Anchorage with a pair of wins in southeastern Alaska this weekend, defeating the host Seawolves by 4-3 and 6-2 scores. UAF has won four of its six meetings with UAA this season, while also recording a tie.

On Friday at Sullivan Arena, Braden Birnie scored with three seconds remaining in regulation to lift UAF to the win. On Saturday, Birnie supplied a goal and two assists, while Chase Dafoe and Alexander Malinowski both scored twice. 

Lassi Lehti stopped 26 of 31 shots for the Nanooks over both games, which drew over 3,000 spectators each night to Sullivan Arena. Tyler Krivtsov stopped 51 of 60 shots in all for UAA, which got goals from five different skaters over the weekend.

The Nanooks (12-15-2 overall) and Seawolves (5-23-1) will close out their 2025-26 NCAA independent season series on Feb. 27-28 at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.

Alaska Blanks St. Lawrence in Lake Placid

Alaska Fairbanks won its first game since Oct. 18 with a 2-0 victory over St. Lawrence yesterday in the semifinal round of the 2025 Adirondack Winter Invitational in Lake Placid, N.Y.

William Fleet and Michael Citara provided all the offense needed for the Nanooks (3-8-1 overall) with second-period goals, while Lassi Lehti made 19 saves for his first shutout of the season and the third of his UAF career. Colin Winn recorded 23 stops for the Saints (2-12-1) as SLU lost its sixth straight contest.

Alaska will play for the tournament title tonight against Clarkson, a 2-0 winner over UMass Lowell in the other semifinal, at Herb Brooks Arena.

ADDENDUM: The Nanooks claimed the Adirondack Winter Invitational championship with a 3-2 triumph over Clarkson in the title contest. Lehti finished with 21 saves in net, while Citara scored UAF's first two goals and Rylen Roersma tallied the game-winner late in the third period. UMass Lowell took third place by beating St. Lawrence, 7-2.

Nanooks Win First Game of Season

Alaska (Fairbanks) finally has its first victory of the 2024-25 NCAA campaign, and it has goaltender Nicholas Grabko to thank for that. 

A transfer from Bentley University, Grabko made 37 stops in Saturday's 1-0 win at Notre Dame, including 20 saves in the second period alone, to gain the series split. Broten Sabo scored the only goal of the penalty-filled contest for the Nanooks midway through the game. The two former CCHA rivals combined for 22 penalties and 87 penalty minutes at Compton Family Ice Arena.

UAF improved to 1-5-0 overall, while UND fell to 3-1-0. Nicholas Kempf made 22 saves for the Fighting Irish. 

Alaska Nanooks Claim Governor's Cup Again

The annual Governor's Cup has once again been claimed by Alaska (Fairbanks).

The Nanooks swept a pair of contests over the weekend at in-state rival Alaska Anchorage, by 5-0 and 3-1 counts. Michigan State transfer Pierce Charleson recorded both victories in net, including the shutout on Friday, followed by a 33-save effort on Saturday. Brady Risk paced the UAF attack with three goals and two assists for five points overall through the two games.

Coupled with an earlier pair of wins in Fairbanks on Nov. 3-4 against UAA, it means that UAF (8-5-1 0verall) has again taken possession of the instate trophy that has been awarded in the head-to-head series between the two NCAA Division I hockey schools since 1994. UAF has won the last 10 Cups, although its 2010, 2011 and 2012 titles were vacated as a result of NCAA violations against the Nanooks. Neither team played during the 2020-21 COVID season, while the Seawolves also sat out the 2021-22 campaign while re-establishing their program after it had been a victim of budget cuts. UAA (6-11-1) last earned the Cup in 2009.

The Nanook and Seawolves will wrap up their 2023-24 season series on Jan. 13 in Fairbanks and on Feb. 3 in Anchorage.

Alaska on 2023 NCAA Tournament Bubble

Alaska (Fairbanks) has climbed into the NCAA tournament conversation. The Nanooks, who swept host Arizona State this past weekend, have climbed to 12th in the Pairwise Rankings, which mimics the NCAA tournament selection process.

UAF (20-10-2 overall) has won nine of its last 10 games, and closes out its 2022-23 regular season this weekend at home against fellow NCAA Division I independent Lindenwood. Senior goaltender Matt Radomsky, a Holy Crass transfer, is 20-10-2 in net for UAF so far this season, with a 2.14 goals-against average and two shutouts 

The Nanooks last made the NCAAs in 2010, when they were a member of the original incarnation of the CCHA, while this season also marks their first 20-win campaign since 2001-02. The last independent to make the NCAA tournament field was Arizona State in 2019.

The 2023 NCAA tournament selection show and the 16-team bracket will be held on March 19. The regionals will be held in Allentown, Bridgeport, Fargo, and Manchester the following weekend, with the Frozen Four to be contested on April 6-8 in Tampa.

Lucia Named First Commissioner of New CCHA

Don Lucia will be the first commissioner of the revamped Central Collegiate Hockey Association, which is scheduled to begin play in 2021-22, according to multiple sources.

Lucia, 61, a Grand Rapids, Minn. native and a former defenseman at Notre Dame who was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1978, served as an assistant coach at Alaska Fairbanks and then Alaska Anchorage from 1981 to 1987. He then took the reins at UAF for six seasons and paced the Nanooks to three 23-win campaigns as an independent.

Lucia then moved on to Colorado College for six more seasons, where he was named both the Spencer Penrose Trophy winner and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year in 1993-94, and also guided the Tigers to the 1996 NCAA championship contest after again winning WCHA Coach of the Year accolades. He took the top job at the University of Minnesota in 1999 and stayed for 19 seasons. He also led the Golden Gophers to six consecutive Big Ten regular season championships after the program left the WCHA.

As an NCAA head coach from 1987 to 2018, Lucia compiled an overall record of 736-403-102 (.634). He led Minnesota to back-to-back national titles in 2002 and 2003, the first NCAA Division I hockey school to do so since Boston University in 1971 and 1972, and altogether guided his teams to a total of 18 NCAA tournament berths, 11 conference regular-season titles, and four conference playoff championships. He also recorded 23 seasons of at least 20 wins apiece.

The "new" CCHA will consist of Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State and Northern Michigan, all current members of the WCHA along with UAF, UAA and Alabama-Huntsville. The original CCHA dissolved in 2013 after 42 years of play.

Alaska Schools Safe for 2020-21 Season

 

According to several sources, Alaska Anchorage and Alaska (Fairbanks) will both participate in the 2020-2021 NCAA campaign, including in ice hockey. The Seawolves and Nanooks participate in Division I for men's ice hockey, and in Division II for all other sports, including basketball, skiing and volleyball.

Both institutions will still be seeking a hockey conference home in two years, as the "new" WCHA is expected to break up and leave the Alaska schools behind, along with Alabama-Huntsville. UAA has been with the WCHA full-time since 1993, while UAF joined in 2013 following the dissolution of the CCHA. Both teams competed as Division I independents for several seasons prior to 1992-93.

Alaska, UAA Split Round One of Governor's Cup

The 2019-20 Alaska Airlines Governor's Cup is all tied up at one win apiece.

The 49th State's two NCAA Division I ice hockey teams split a pair of games at the Seawolf Sports Complex in Anchorage over the weekend, with visiting Alaska (Fairbanks) winning by a 2-1 count on Friday night before host Alaska Anchorage returned the favor on Saturday afternoon with a 4-0 whitewash.

On Friday, Brayden Camrud staked the Seawolves to a 1-0 lead just under 16 minutes into the first period, before Tristan Thompson set up Max Newton for the tying score for UAF 46 seconds before intermission. Thompson's power-play goal midway through the second stanza then put the Nanooks on top for good, as Anton Martinsson made 26 stops in goal for the victory.

On Saturday, Nick Wicks paced the Seawolf offense with two goals and an assist, including the game-winning goal on a second-period power play, while Tomi Hiekkavirta posted three assists. Tanner Schachle and Alex Frye also scored for the Seawolves, and Kristian Stead made 29 saves for the shutout while also backstopping UAA (1-3-0 overall, 1-1-0 WCHA) to its first victory this fall. Martinsson had 22 stops in the rematch for the Nanooks (4-4-0, 2-2-0).

The two games marked the inaugural contests of the first full home slate for UAA Hockey to be played at the sports complex since the 1982-83 campaign. Since then the Seawolves had skated at the 6,200-seat Sullivan Arena in downtown Anchorage, but were forced to move back on-campus this season due to state budget cuts. Plans call for the 700-seat facility to potentially be expanded to as much as 2,500 seats over the next few years.

This season's Governor's Cup will be determined following a two-game set at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks on Feb. 28-29, 2020. A deciding shootout will be utilized if the two schools are subsequently tied with two wins apiece following the second game in Fairbanks.  The Nanooks have claimed the last 10 Governor's Cups.

UAA will now host Nebraska-Omaha for two non-conference games next weekend, including the series opener on Halloween night, while UAF will entertain Bemidji State for a pair of WCHA contests on Friday and Saturday.

Largen Takes Over Hometown Nanooks

My latest USCHO feature story, on new Alaska (Fairbanks) head coach and Nanook alumnus Erik Largen, is now online here. Fairbanks native Largen, a former UAF goaltender and assistant coach, is the ninth head coach in modern Nanook Hockey history.

Ferguson Back in NCAA with Denver

Former University of Alaska (Fairbanks) defenseman, assistant coach, and head coach Dallas Ferguson is returning to the college game as an assistant coach with the University of Denver.
He spent last season as head coach of the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League, compiling a 24-37-record.

After beginning his coaching career as an assistant with the North American Hockey League's Fairbanks Ice Dogs in 2002, Ferguson served as an assistant coach with UAF from 2004 to 2008 before being elevated to the rank of head coach. He was named the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Coach of the Year in his first campaign, and the following year led UAF to its first-ever berth in the NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament, an at-large selection. The Nanooks fell to eventual national champion Boston College, 3-1, in the opening round of the 2010 NCAA Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass.

In 10 seasons overseeing the Nanook hockey program, Ferguson, 44, finished with a career record of 139-151-42, according to USCHO.com. In five of those seasons, he led the Nanooks to 17 or more victories. UAF also won eight consecutive Governor's Cups against rival Alaska Anchorage in his time behind the bench, although three of those Cups were vacated due to self-reported NCAA violations by the university. 

Ferguson was a four-year letterwinner on defense for the Nanooks from 1992 to 1996, as UAF played its first four campaigns in the CCHA. He tallied a career-high six goals and 31 assists for 37 points as a sophomore, according to hockeydb.com, and finished his career with 17-87—104 points and 64 penalty minutes in 138 career collegiate outings.

At DU, Ferguson will join former Nanook forward and head coach Tavis MacMillan, whom Ferguson assisted from 2004 to 2007 at UAF. The Pioneers, 2017 NCAA champions, won the NCHC playoff crown last year, but fell to Ohio State in the NCAA Midwest Regional final in Allentown, Pa.

Largen Chosen as New Alaska (Fairbanks) Head Coach

The University of Alaska (Fairbanks) finally settled on a new head coach—and it's now-former assistant coach Erik Largen.

A Fairbanks native, Largen, 31, becomes the youngest head men’s ice hockey coach in NCAA Division I ranks, following Matt Curley, 35, who was tabbed as the new head coach at in-state rival Alaska Anchorage earlier this month.

Largen, who was an assistant coach at UAF over the past two seasons, is also a former backup goaltender for the Nanooks (2006-2008). According to eliteprospects.com, he entered the coaching ranks in 2009 and spent two seasons as the goaltending coach for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs (NAHL). He then moved on to the Twin Cities (Minn.) Northern Lights (MNJHL) for two years as head coach, before splitting the 2013-14 campaign between Janesville (NAHL) and Tri-City (USHL) as an assistant coach.

Largen then served one season as head coach at NCAA Division III Marian (Wisc.) University, before he returned to his alma mater as an assistant in 2016. His hiring completes a process that was heavily botched by UAF administrators, one that came to a head earlier this month when first choice Brent Brekke, a former associate head coach at Miami, was chosen as the new Nanook head coach but could not come to an agreement with the university on a contract.

Lance West, the other finalist for the position, withdrew from consideration after Brekke was originally selected. West served as an interim head coach of the Nanooks last season after longtime head coach and UAF alumnus Dallas Ferguson took the head coaching job with Calgary (WHL) last summer. West, a former player for Alabama-Huntsville, had served as an assistant coach with UAF for nine years prior to his one year as head coach. Since he was labeled as an interim coach, the position had to be re-opened for applications this year.

Largen becomes the ninth head coach in the modern history of Nanook Hockey, which got its start as an independent NCAA Division II varsity program in 1979. The Nanooks, now a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, moved up to the Division I ranks in the 1980s and made their only NCAA Division I Tournament appearance in 2010 as a member of the now-defunct Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

Ferguson Moving on From Nanooks

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is searching for a new hockey coach.

Longtime head coach and former Nanook defenseman Dallas Ferguson, who had helmed his alma mater's flagship program since 2008, has resigned to take the same position with the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League.

After beginning his coaching career as an assistant with the North American Hockey League's Fairbanks Ice Dogs in 2002, Ferguson served as an assistant coach with the Nanooks from 2004 to 2008 before being elevated to head coach. He was named the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Coach of the Year in his first campaign, and the following year led UAF to its first-ever berth in the NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament, an at-large selection. The Nanooks fell to eventual national champion Boston College, 3-1, in the opening round of the 2010 NCAA Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass.

In 10 seasons guiding UAF, Ferguson, 44, finished with a career record of 139-151-42, according to USCHO.com. In five of those seasons, he led the Nanooks to 17 or more victories. UAF also won eight consecutive Governor's Cups against rival Alaska Anchorage in his time behind the bench, although three of those Cups were vacated due to self-reported NCAA violations by the university. The Nanooks finished sixth overall in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) last season, their fourth year in the league after the CCHA folded in 2013.

Ferguson was a four-year letterwinner on defense for the Nanooks from 1992 to 1996, when the UAF played its first four seasons in the CCHA. He tallied a career-high six goals and 31 assists for 37 points as a sophomore, according to hockeydb.com, and finished his career with 17-87—104 points and 64 penalty minutes in 138 career outings.

He was awarded the Shawn Chambers Top Defenseman Award three times, according to alaskananooks.com, was an alternate captain as a junior, and was voted the team captain as a senior. Ferguson, who hails from Wainwright, Alberta, graduated from UAF with a bachelor's degree in business administration, and also played five years of professional hockey.

At least three of Ferguson's former charges have advanced to the National Hockey League (NHL), including St. Louis Blues defenseman Colton Parayko, Buffalo Sabres goaltender Chad Johnson, and 2010 Stanley Cup champion Jordan Hendry.

According to the UAF athletic website, Ferguson's last day with the Nanooks is Aug. 17. The Hitmen will open their 2017-18 WHL season on Sept. 22 at Kootenay, while UAF will begin its new campaign on Sept. 29 in Fairbanks with an exhibition game against Simon Fraser.

ADDENDUM: Longtime Nanook assistant coach and former Alabama-Huntsville player and assistant Lance West was named Alaska's new head coach on July 19.

Minnesota's Weiss Joins Nanooks

The University of Alaska (Fairbanks) has secured a commitment from defenseman Jack Weiss for the 2015-16 NCAA campaign, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

A 5-foot-11, 170-pound native of Bloomington, Minn., Weiss, 21, joins the Nanooks after two seasons in the North American Hockey League. In 105 career NAHL games with Minnesota and Rio Grande, he tallied one goal and 15 assists for 16 points to go along with 139 penalty minutes.

UAF begins its season on Oct. 4 with an exhibition contest against Mt. Royal university at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.

Former Nanook MacMillan Joins Denver Staff

Former University of Alaska Fairbanks forward and coach Tavis MacMillan is joining the University of Denver coaching staff as an assistant.

MacMillan, 44, an Alberta native who tied for the 1993-94 NCAA Division I scoring lead with UAF teammate Dean Fedorchuk with 74 points, heads to Colorado after serving as an NHL scout with the Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets organization since the 2007-08 NHL campaign.

Prior to becoming a scout, MacMillan spent the previous 10 seasons on Alaska Fairbanks' coaching staff. He served as head coach from 2004 to 2007, and led the Nanooks to wins over three different No. 1 ranked schools in his second season behind the bench, en route to winning 46 games in his tenure.

MacMillan played professionally with San Jose (RHI), Alaska (WCHL), and Greensboro (ECHL) after graduating from UAF. In four collegiate seasons in Fairbanks, he collected 56 goals and 136 assists for 192 points to go with 235 penalty minutes, including a career-high 23 goals and 51 assists as a senior. He was inducted into the Nanook Hall of Fame in 2009.

MacMillan is no stranger to Denver, which last won NCAA hockey titles in 2004 and 2005. His uncle, John, won two national titles (1958, 1960) while playing forward for the Pioneers, and later earned two Stanley Cup titles with the Toronto Maple Leafs before later finishing his pro career with San Diego (WHL).

UAF Wraps Up 2014-15 Season This Weekend

Alaska Fairbanks faces the end of its season this weekend with two games at rival Alaska Anchorage to decide the annual Governor's Cup. UAF (17-13-2 overall, 12-12-2 WCHA), which stands in fifth place in its conference, is ineligible for the WCHA and NCAA postseason races due to academic violations from 2008 to 2012.

The Nanooks, who dropped a pair of games to UAA by 2-1 and 3-2 (OT) counts in Fairbanks on Jan. 16-17, need to win both games this weekend at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage to force a Cup-deciding shootout. UAA (8-20-4, 5-19-2 WCHA), on the other hand, sits in last place in the WCHA, and can only advance to the league playoffs if it sweeps UAF, and both Alabama-Huntsville and Lake Superior State are held pointless.

As part of its capitulation regarding the NCAA violations, UAF had to vacate two of its past Governor's Cup victories over UAA, along with its appearance in the 2010 NCAA Tournament where the Nanooks fell in the first round to eventual national champion Boston College.

ADDENDUM: UAF won, 3-2, on Saturday night and then won, 1-0, in the ensuing shootout to claim its third straight Governor's Cup.

NCAA Drops the Hammer on Alaska Fairbanks

The situation with the University of Alaska's self-reported violations and the NCAA's ban on postseason play for the Nanooks, among other penalties, has already been well-documented on other sites including USCHO.com, collegehockeynews.com, and The (Fairbanks) Daily News-Miner, so I won't go into extended detail here.

Put simply, Alaska will forfeit its men's hockey victories between 2007 and 2012, including a pair of Governor's Cup titles against in-state rival Alaska Anchorage, and will also lose several scholarships. Four more of Alaska's intercollegiate athletic teams will be taken to task in one way, shape or form, including the dual loss of victories and scholarships.

There have been been academic problems at the former UAF before – the 1991-92 Nanook hockey squad had to sacrifice a total of 12 victories because of academic "violations", including the ludicrous NCAA stipulation that a student-athlete's five-year eligibility clock begins ticking once he or she enrolls at an intercollegiate institution or even a community college. That's even if that institution doesn't field (or ice) their particular sport. The same thing happened with Scotland native Colin Shields, who lost an entire season (2000-01) at Maine that way, although the Black Bears didn't have to forfeit any games because he sat out every contest his freshman year.

The current Alaska players are the ones who will be punished for the transgressions of adults who should have kept a better eye on things. The NCAA also seems to be – wrongly – looking to make an example out of a smaller Division II school where there are transgressions all over the place, some bordering on the outright criminal, at some of its various Division I members.

You can bet this would have never happened with the Florida State football program.

Fedorchuk to Join Nanook Hall of Fame

An old friend of mine, Dean Fedorchuk, will be feted with the ultimate honor from the University of Alaska Fairbanks next month, 20 years after he played his final game for the Blue and Gold.

The Nanooks’ second all-time leading scorer with 215 points and their all-time leading goal scorer with 113 goals, the Winnipeg native will be inducted into the Nanook Hall of Fame in late September along with former UAF head coach Guy Gadowsky, now the head coach at Penn State after a seven-year spell at Princeton.

Fedorchuk, who played professionally in Europe for 14 seasons after North American stints with Kalamazoo (IHL) and Dayton (ECHL), was one of the most exciting players to ever appear in a Nanook uniform. I should know—I was working at UAF and had the privilege of watching him score 29 goals as a sophomore in 1991-92, including a hat trick and then a spectacular buzzer-beating marker against rival Alaska Anchorage at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.

The Nanooks’ No. 3 collected a nation-high 42 goals as senior in 1993-94 when he was also a First-Team All-America selection and a Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist. No NCAA Division I player has scored 40 goals in a single season since. Fedorchuk also tied for the national scoring lead with teammate Tavis MacMillan that season with 74 points as the Nanooks finished 24-13-1 and boasted one of the top power-plays in the nation. MacMillan, a former Nanook player, assistant coach and head coach, was inducted into the Nanook Hall of Fame in 2009.

Fedorchuk later played seven seasons in Germany, where he tallied 185 goals and 361 points in 298 games. He spent his first five years there with Neuweid EHC where he recorded back-to-back campaigns of 82 and 96 points in his first two campaigns, respectively. He later went on to play seven seasons in Denmark, and has also served as a scout with his hometown Winnipeg Jets.

Fedorchuk also coached for three years in Denmark and another in Sweden, before ultimately taking an assistant coaching position in Croatia with Medvescak Zagreb (KHL), where he remains today. He still summers in Fairbanks, where he runs the annual ALCAN Hockey Camps , and will be the third UAF hockey player to be inducted into the Nanook Hall of Fame along with MacMillan and all-time leading scorer Steve Moria.

Congrats, Feds!

Tales from the Road

Pretty good piece at USCHO.com about the trials and travails of college hockey teams traveling earlier this month, particularly the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Stuck in Minneapolis after not making their connecting flight from Wisconsin in time, the Seawolves eventually arrived home 24 hours before they swept Minnesota State—which was already in the 49th State, having played Alaska (Fairbanks) the weekend before—even though UAA had to express mail its equipment home.

Having spent my first year after graduating from Boston College at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, I can personally relate that traveling from the Great White North to the rest of the NCAA hockey world had and still has its own unique challenges, even normally. Connecting flights are just a cost of doing business to compete at the Division I level with the rest of the Lower 48.

In November 1991, UAF headed east to play Army, which was an East Coast homecoming for me. The itinerary? Leave Fairbanks International Airport at midnight Alaska time (which is 4 a.m. ET). Get into Anchorage in about 45 minutes, then leave for Seattle about a half-hour later. Get into Seattle 5 a.m. Pacific time, when barely anything is open in the airport (as a long-time Seahawks fan, I probably should have gone to see the Kingdome then, before it got imploded in 2000). Then off to Salt Lake City, before flying to Chicago, and then getting into Newark early that evening.

Play at Army, sweep the series, then head up to Maine (I didn't make that leg of the trip). Then go home in reverse, again taking about 15-18 hours total with layovers. Then repeat again a few weeks later to Alabama-Huntsville. Then again to Kent State—and again. And again. (And then personally, do it one more time in Jan. 1996 with Michigan State for a three-game trip to Fairbanks.)

You don't really see NHL teams do that.