Thursday, February 26, 2026

Men’s Notes: Plenty of Drama as Regular Season Winds Down

Five of Six Conference Titles Still Up for Grabs

There are only two weeks of regular-season hockey remaining on the college hockey schedule.

One team has already clinched a conference championship, four leagues (Atlantic Hockey America, CCHA, ECAC Hockey, NCHC) will conclude their regular season slates this weekend, and the remaining two conferences (Big Ten, Hockey East) are in their penultimate week.

Let’s take a look at where each conference race stands as March approaches:

Atlantic Hockey America
Regular-season champion: Bentley
The Falcons became the nation’s first team to clinch a championship, edging RIT 4-3 on Friday to claim the program’s first-ever AHA title. With an 11-point lead on Sacred Heart and RIT entering the final weekend, Bentley will own that championship outright.

Big Ten
Regular-season champion: TBD
The top two teams in the NPI – Michigan State and Michigan – are also the top two teams in the Big Ten standings with two weeks left on the schedule. The Wolverines lead the Spartans by one point, but Michigan State owns two games in hand; MSU has two series remaining, while Michigan wraps up its schedule this weekend at home against Minnesota. Third-place Penn State trails MSU by eight points.

CCHA
Regular-season champion: TBD
Remarkably, five teams will enter the final weekend with a mathematical chance of winning the CCHA: Augustana, St. Thomas, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State and Bowling Green. Just six points separate Augustana, which is idle this week, from fifth-place BGSU.

ECAC Hockey
Regular-season champion: TBD
Quinnipiac is closing in on an incredible sixth consecutive ECAC Hockey regular-season title, taking a four-point lead over Dartmouth into their head-to-head matchup on Friday. On Saturday, QU will play its regular-season finale at Harvard, while the Big Green finish at home versus Princeton.

Hockey East
Regular-season champion: TBD
Providence holds a nine-point lead on Boston College with two weeks to play, and the Friars can clinch at least a share of the crown as early as this weekend. Providence has never won the Hockey East regular season outright.

NCHC
Regular-season champion: TBD
First-place North Dakota closes out the regular season at Western Michigan with five points separating the Fighting Hawks from both WMU and Denver. UND can clinch at least a share of the Penrose Cup with a single point this weekend and can win the title outright with two points.

Follow the action all the way down to the wire with College Hockey Inc.’s live daily scoreboard.

Daily Scoreboard | Weekly Schedule | Scoring Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

Falcon Firsts:

Last season, Bentley qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history, eventually falling 3-1 to Boston College in the opening round.

Head coach Andy Jones (Amherst College ’00) and his Falcons accomplished another program first this season, edging RIT 4-3 last Friday to secure the school’s first Atlantic Hockey America regular-season title.

Prior to the season, Bentley was picked to finish third (with one first-place vote) in the 2025-26 AHA preseason coaches’ poll and not a single player earned preseason all-conference honors. Yet six months later, the Falcons will be able to hang a banner after losing just four times in 24 AHA games.

Nothing to Groene About:

Quinnipiac sophomore D Elliott Groenewold (Bellows Falls, Vt.) leads the country with a plus-38 rating, which would be the highest on record* by an NCAA Division I defenseman in the last 20 years.

NCAA Plus/Minus Leaders in 2025-26
Name, School	Rating
1. Elliott Groenewold, Quinnipiac	+38
2. Charlie Stramel, Michigan State	+30
3. Daniel Russell, Michigan State	+29
4. Porter Martone, Michigan State	+27
5. Luca Fantilli, Michigan	+26

Groenewold’s plus-38 is also the highest of any skater since the three members of North Dakota’s famed ‘CBS Line’ during their 2015-16 national championship season: Drake Caggiula (+46), Brock Boeser (+45) and Nick Schmaltz (+44).

* — Plus/minus rating became universally tracked in NCAA Division I hockey in 2005-06.

Net Gains:

After missing nearly three full months due to injury, Sacred Heart standout G Ajeet Gundarah (So., Richmond, British Columbia) returned to the lineup last weekend and stopped 55 of 58 shots (.948) in the Crusaders sweep of Holy Cross.

Gundarah, an All-Atlantic Hockey America pick as a freshman last season, hadn’t played since Nov. 28 at the Friendship Four in Belfast. Friday’s win over Holy Cross was his first since Nov. 22.

Hockey Humanitarian Finalists:

The five finalists were unveiled Tuesday for the prestigious Hockey Humanitarian Award, which annually recognizes college hockey’s finest citizen.

Those finalists included a pair of men’s players: Princeton D Jayden Sison (Sr., Paoli, Pa.) and UConn F Ryan Tattle (Sr., Port Moody, British Columbia). A trio of women’s players were also named finalists: Boston College F Kara Goulding (Sr., Belmont, Mass.), Minnesota Duluth F Grace Sadura (Jr., Chanhassen, Minn.), and Middlebury College F Meg Simon (Sr., East Grand Rapids, Mich.).

The winner will be announced on April 10 at the NCAA Men’s Frozen Four in Las Vegas.

NCAA Milestone Watch:

160 Career Games Played (skaters)
158 – F Rieger Lorenz, Denver

150 Career Games Played (skaters)
148 – F Davis Burnside, Ohio State
148 – F T.J. Hughes, Michigan
148 – F Brody Lamb, Minnesota

100 Career Points
99 – F Josh Nadeau, Maine
98 – F Jay Ahearn, UMass Lowell
97 – F Matt DiMarsico, Penn State
97 – F Christian Fitzgerald, Wisconsin
97 – F Stiven Sardarian, Michigan Tech
95 – F Jack Musa, UMass

50 Career Goals
49 – F Davis Burnside, Ohio State
49 – F Joey Muldowney, UConn
48 – F Sam Harris, Denver
48 – F Dylan James, North Dakota
47 – F Jay Ahearn, UMass Lowell
47 – F Brandon Buhr, Union
47 – F Brody Lamb, Minnesota

10 Career Shutouts
9 – Trey Augustine, Michigan State
9 – Kyle Chauvette, New Hampshire
8 – Michael Hrabal, UMass
8 – Josh Kotai, Augustana

3,000 Career Saves
2,983 – Simon Latkoczy, Omaha

SID Stuff:

For the roundup of superlatives in the wake of Gavin McKenna’s (Fr., Whitehorse, Yukon) 10-point weekend against Ohio State, we turn to Penn State Associate Director of Strategic Communications John Hanna. According to Hanna:

McKenna’s eight points and seven assists Friday were both PSU school records
Both were the most-ever by a player on a Big Ten team both pre- and post-league inception
It was the first game of 8+ points in college hockey since 1987 (North Dakota’s Bob Joyce)
It was the first game of 7+ assists in college hockey since 1983 (Vermont’s Kevin Foster)
McKenna’s 30 assists this season tied the school record set last season by Aiden Fink

Since Jan. 16, McKenna leads the country with 24 points and 15 assists in just 10 games.

Notebook Quotebook:

“I want them [junior hockey and minor hockey players] to understand that I went from not having a spot to play, to teams in the OJHL telling me that I wasn’t good enough, and not 12 months later I was at Pittsburgh’s development camp. It can happen like that. It doesn’t matter where you are right now. If you work hard and are fully dedicated, good things can happen.”

— Bemidji State junior F Oliver Peer (Burlington, Ontario), who leads the Beavers in scoring in his first year of college hockey (source: Bemidji Pioneer).

Winter Olympics Note of the Week:

Four of the six players named to the Media All-Star Team at the Olympics were former college hockey players: United States G Connor Hellebuyck (UMass Lowell, 2012-14), United States D Quinn Hughes (Michigan 2017-19), Canada F Macklin Celebrini (Boston University, 2023-24), and Canada D Cale Makar (UMass, 2017-19).

Hellebuyck was named the tournament’s best goaltender while Hughes was chosen as top defenseman.

In all, 25 former NCAA men’s hockey players earned medals: 20 gold-medalists with Team USA, four with silver-medalist Canada, and one from bronze-medalist Finland.

On the women’s side, 56 players with NCAA ties earned a medal, including 23 gold (United States), 23 silver (Canada), and 10 bronze (Switzerland).

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

Brown announced Tom Upton (Wisconsin-Stevens Point ’10) as its next head coach on Monday. Currently a UMass assistant coach, Upton will remain with the 19th-ranked Minutemen through the end of the season … A school-record 15,511 fans packed Wisconsin’s Kohl Center on Saturday, a 3-1 Badger loss to Michigan … UMass G Michael Hrabal (Jr., Praha, Czechia) won his 50th NCAA game Saturday, becoming the nation’s sixth active netminder to reach that milestone … Arizona State senior G Connor Hasley (North Tonawanda, N.Y.) made his 100th NCAA appearance in Saturday’s 6-3 win over Omaha … Penn State’s five power-play goals in Friday’s win over Ohio State tied the NCAA season high set by Arizona State back on Oct. 11 … Canisius sophomore G Petter Wickström Stumer (Stockholm, Sweden) earned his first NCAA shutout in last Saturday’s win over Robert Morris … Providence’s win over Vermont on Friday was the 300th behind the Friars’ bench for head coach Nate Leaman (Cortland ’97).

Longest Active Team Winning Streaks:

3 games, Boston College (began Feb. 14 vs. Merrimack)
3 games, Clarkson (began Feb. 7 vs. Union)
3 games, Denver (began Feb. 7 vs. Colorado College)
3 games, Michigan State (began Feb. 7 vs. Michigan)
3 games, Providence (began Feb. 14 vs. Northeastern)
3 games, St. Lawrence (began Feb. 7 vs. RPI)

Longest Active Point Streaks:

9 games, F Brody Lamb (Minnesota)
- 5-6—11, began Jan. 18 vs. Michigan
9 games, F Brodie Ziemer (Minnesota)
- 5-6—11, began Jan. 24 at Michigan State
8 games, F Lucas Buzziol (Union)
- 6-5—11, began Jan. 24 vs. RPI
8 games, F James Hagens (Boston College)
- 8-6—15, began Jan. 30
8 games, F Matthew Kursonis (Holy Cross)
- 2-8—10, began Jan. 29 vs. Army
7 games, F Christian Fitzgerald (Wisconsin)
- 4-5—9, began Jan. 31 at Minnesota
7 games, F Porter Martone (Michigan State)
- 6-8—14, began Jan. 24 vs. Minnesota
7 games, F Daniel Russell (Michigan State)
- 3-11—14, began Jan. 24 vs. Minnesota
7 games, F Brodie Ziemer (Minnesota)
- 6-3—9, began Jan. 24 at Michigan State

Longest Active Goal Streaks:

5 games, D Jack Anderson (Michigan Tech)
- 6-4—10, began Jan. 31 at St. Thomas
5 games, F Jace Letourneau (Clarkson)
- 5-1—6, began Jan. 31 vs. Quinnipiac
5 games, F Rieger Lorenz (Denver)
- 5-2—7, began Jan. 31 vs. Minnesota Duluth
5 games, F Michael Mesic (Bentley)
- 6-3—9, began Jan. 9 at Air Force

Longest Active Goalie Winning Streaks:

6 games, Stephen Peck (Michigan)
- Began Jan. 10 vs. Notre Dame
6 games, Nicholas Bevilacqua (Bentley)
- Began Dec. 6 vs. Niagara
5 games, Gibson Homer (North Dakota)
- Began Dec. 13 vs. Omaha

Conference Websites

College Hockey Inc. Resources:

Did you know? 93% of NCAA Division I men’s hockey players earn their degree!