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.

NCAA Skaters Moved at 2026 NHL Deadline

Some of the transactions involving former NCAA players during Friday's NHL trading deadline (players listed by last name):

Player, Position (School)            Old Team     New Team

Wyatt Bongiovanni, C (Quinnipiac)    Ottawa      Washington

Bobby Brink, F (Denver)         Philadelphia  Minnesota

Jacob Bryson, D (Providence)         Buffalo       Winnipeg

Justin Faulk, D (MN-Duluth)         St. Louis     Detroit

Warren Foegele, F (New Hampshire)    Los Angeles   Ottawa

Vinny Hinostroza, C (Notre Dame)     Florida       Minnesota

Bobby McMann, C (Colgate)            Toronto       Seattle

Massimo Rizzo, C (Denver)            Philadelphia  Boston

Aidan Thompson, C (Denver)           Chicago       NY Rangers

MSU Wins Third Straight Big Ten Title

Michigan State has won its third consecutive Big Ten Conference regular-season title following last night's 7-1 win at Minnesota. The Spartans are the first Big Ten school to turn the trifecta since the conference began play in 2013.

It is also the first time MSU has won three consecutive regular-season conference titles, although the Spartans did win back-to-back regular-season crowns during their time in the original central Collegiate Hockey Association.

MSU (25-7-1 overall, 16-6-1 Big Ten) will close out its 2025-26 regular season tonight at Minnesota, and will have a first-round bye in the Big Ten championship, which it has claimed the last two years.

Maryville to Join NCAA Division I Hockey

Maryville University is expected to be the next school to ice an NCAA Division I men's hockey team, according to online sources. A private Catholic institution in St. Louis, Maryville will be the first school to join the NCAA Division I men's hockey ranks since Lindenwood did so in 2022-23.

The Saints are expected to play a hybrid schedule in 2026-27, against both NCAA and American Collegiate Hockey Association club opponents, and will then transition to a full NCAA schedule the following season. They play their home games at the Maryville University Hockey Center in Chesterfield, Mo., which is slated to undergo an expansion.

Maryville currently fields three men's American Collegiate Hockey Association teams, and two ACHA women's teams. The ACHA Division I men's team played three exhibition games this season against NCAA Division I competition, two at Long Island University and one at Alaska Anchorage. The 14th-ranked Saints have qualified for this year's ACHA Division I men's national championship, and will face No. 19 John Carroll in the preliminary round.

Upton to Take Over at Brown

Brown University has named Tom Upton as its new men's ice hockey head coach. A native of Austin, TX, he succeeds Brendan Whittet, who resigned earlier this year for family medical reasons. Whittet coached his last game on Feb. 14, a 4-3 win over Dartmouth, as the Bears are being led by assistant coach Jason Smith for the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign.

Upton, 41, played defense at Wisconsin Stevens-Point from 2006 to 2010, notching two goals and 11 assists for 13 points to go with 183 penalty minutes in 89 career games. A three-year veteran of the North American Hockey League at the junior level, he later played briefly in the Southern Professional Hockey League before turning to coaching.

Upton coached as an assistant at his alma mater from 2010 to 2013 before spending one year with the USHL's Cedar Rapids Roughriders, also as an assistant, and two seasons as head coach of the NAHL's Minnesota Magicians. He then served three years as an assistant at Mercyhurst College, before returning to the USHL for one season where he guided the Madison Capitols to the 2022 Clark Cup Finals. He spent the past four seasons as an assistant with the University of Massachusetts.

Brown (5-21-2 overall, 4-14-2 ECAC Hockey) closes out its regular season this weekend at home against Rensselaer and Union.

U.S. Men Claim 2026 Olympic Gold Medal

The Miracle on Ice finally got some company.

Exactly 46 years to the day that the Americans defeated the Russians at Lake Placid, the U.S. men's hockey team won its third goal medal ever with a 2-1 victory over Canada in overtime in the championship game Sunday at the XXV Olympic Winter Games in Milan, Italy.

Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils scored less than two minutes into the 3-on-3 overtime, assisted by Zach Werenski (Michigan), to give the U.S. the win and its first Olympic men's hockey title since 1980. Cale Makar (Massachusetts) had tied the game in the second period for Canada, which was seeking its first Olympic men's gold since 2014, the last time that NHL players participated in the Olympics. Matt Boldy (Boston College) scored Team USA's first goal of the day in the first period, assisted by Quinn Hughes (Michigan), on the Americans' first shot on goal.

Connor Hellebuyck (UMass Lowell) stopped 41 shots for the Americans, including a point-blank save on Devon Toews (Quinnipiac) in the second stanza. Toews later posted the lone assist on the goal by Makar, his teammate with the NHL's Colorado Avalanche. Canada outshot the U.S., 42-28, overall but went 0-for-3 on the power play, including a two-man advantage in the second period, while the U.S. finished 0-for-2.

It was America's first Olympic men's hockey gold medal won outside the United States, as the first came in California in 1960. The U.S. won both Olympic hockey gold medals this year, with the American women also defeating Canada, 2-1 in OT, on Thursday.

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.