2026-27 NCHC schedule announced

In the NCHC, hockey season never truly ends.

Just 10 days after the Denver Pioneers celebrated their record-extending 11th national championship, the powers that be in the conference have gifted fans the full conference schedule for the 2026-27 season.

This season comes with a new member as St. Thomas brings the conference back to even membership at 10 teams.

Coming off a last place finish in 2025-26, the fully revamped Sun Devil hockey roster will face the usual gauntlet that is the toughest conference in college hockey.

With the increase in conference membership, the NCHC has introduced fixed conference rivalry pairings. Arizona State will be paired with Omaha, and the final weekend of the regular season will be reserved for these rivalry games, with teams alternating hosting by year.

Another new wrinkle with the addition of St. Thomas is the conference tournament format. All 10 teams will now qualify for the NCHC tournament. Teams will be seeded 1v10, 2v9, etc., and will play a best-of-3 series at the site of the higher seed. a "4v5" play-in game will be played between the two lowest remaining teams, hosted by the highest remaining seed on Friday, March 12th before the semifinals the next day.

The rest of the non-conference schedule has yet to be announced, but we do know that the Sun Devils will participate in the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off on December 29-30 in Milwaukee in lieu of the annual Desert Hockey Classic. National finalist Wisconsin is the host school, with Massachusetts and Northern Michigan rounding out the field. Other non-conference opponents reportedly include Lindenwood, UMass-Lowell, Holy Cross, and Alaska-Anchorage.

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