NCHC Reveals 2025-26 Conference Schedule

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – With a new postseason format set to debut in March, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) unveiled the 2025-2026 NCHC conference schedule on Monday.
 
For the second straight year, the conference schedule will consist of 108 regular-season games, with all nine teams playing a 24-game NCHC slate. The conference calendar begins a week earlier than in years past to accommodate the new playoff format, with the first NCHC games set for Oct. 31. The regular season then concludes on Feb. 28, with the NCHC regular-season champion hoisting the Julie and Spencer Penrose Memorial Cup.
 
The new NCHC playoff format, which was first announced in December of 2023, will now take place over three weeks entirely on campus sites. Like in 2025, only the top eight teams in the final standings will make the NCHC Tournament with best-of-three quarterfinal series set for March 6-8, 2026 at the four highest seeds. The four quarterfinal series winners are then re-seeded with the two highest remaining seeds hosting single-game semifinals the following Saturday (March 14, 2026). The NCHC championship game will then be held the following Friday or Saturday (March 20 or 21, 2026) at the highest remaining seed, with the exact date still to be determined. 
 
While the official start date of the NCAA men’s hockey regular season is Friday, Oct. 3, the first NCHC conference action in 2025-26 doesn’t take place until the weekend of Oct. 31-Nov. 1. Four series are set for that weekend, with defending National Champions and Penrose Cup champions Western Michigan opening at St. Cloud State. Minnesota Duluth visits rival North Dakota to begin NCHC play that weekend, as well, while Arizona State starts at Miami and Omaha is at Colorado College.
 
The final team to begin conference play is Denver, which opens at Western Michigan the following weekend on Nov. 7-8 in a rematch of last year’s Frozen Faceoff Championship Game and Frozen Four semifinal. Other rivalry series that weekend include an in-state clash between St. Cloud State and UMD, North Dakota at Omaha in a rematch of last season’s quarterfinals, and Colorado College at Arizona State.
 
The battle for the Gold Pan gets underway Nov. 14-15 with CC and Denver colliding in the first of their two home-and-home series. Miami also visits Western Michigan that weekend in a clash of old CCHA foes.
 
Conference play in 2025 wraps up with a quartet of series on Dec. 12-13, including Omaha’s return trip to UND. Following the winter holiday break, NCHC action resumes on Jan. 9-10 with four more series, including the second showdown of the season between the Broncos and Pioneers, with this series in Denver. The following weekend (Jan. 16-17) only has three series on the docket, but includes the lone regular-season meetings between Denver and North Dakota, as well as UMD’s return trip to St. Cloud State.
 
The pursuit of the Penrose Cup finishes with six straight weekends featuring four series of conference play. On Feb. 6-7, CC and Denver complete their Gold Pan series, while WMU and Miami also conclude their four-game series. Due to the odd number of teams in the NCHC, St. Cloud State closes out the regular season on Feb. 20-21 at UND, while the regular season wraps up on Feb. 27-28 with North Dakota at Western Michigan, Colorado College at Minnesota Duluth, Miami at Omaha and Arizona State at Denver. The UND at WMU series and ASU at Denver series are both rematches from the 2025 Frozen Faceoff semifinals.
 
While NCHC teams have traditionally ended the regular season with their rival/travel partner, the 2025-26 season is an exception with the second year of a nine-team rotation. Beginning in 2026-27 with the addition of St. Thomas, teams will return to finishing the season against a pre-determined travel partner with an even number of teams (10).
 
NCHC teams will continue to play 12 home and 12 away conference games in the 2025-26 regular season and face each team in at least one series during the regular season. The NCHC’s nine-team schedule model consists of three, three-team pods based on geography with teams guaranteed to play home and away series against the other two teams in their pod (eight games). The three-team pods are: Arizona State, Colorado College and Denver; Minnesota Duluth, North Dakota and St. Cloud State; and Miami, Omaha and Western Michigan. The remaining 16 conference games are played against the six ‘non-pod’ teams, with four opponents only being played in one series and two ‘non-pod’ opponents being played in both home and away series.
 
The Julie and Spencer Penrose Memorial Cup is awarded to the NCHC regular-season champions, won by Western Michigan for the first time last season. The winner of the NCHC Tournament receives the Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, also won by the Broncos for the first time in 2025. The day for the 2026 NCHC Championship Game (March 20 or March 21) will be announced at a later date prior to the season.
 
All dates listed for the 2025-26 NCHC schedule are subject to change and times are still to be announced. To see the complete conference schedule, click here. The non-conference portion of the 2025-26 schedule will be added once all NCHC teams announce their own non-conference schedules.
 
KEY DATES IN 2025-2026

• Friday, Oct. 3 – NCAA Official Start Date
• Friday, Oct. 31 – First NCHC conference games
• Saturday, Dec. 13 – Final NCHC conference games in 2025
• Friday, Jan. 9 – NCHC conference play resumes in 2026
• Saturday, Feb. 28 – NCHC regular season concludes
• Friday-Sunday, March 6-8 – NCHC Quarterfinals (campus sites)
• Saturday, March 14 – NCHC Semifinals (campus sites)
• Friday, March 20 OR Saturday, March 21 – NCHC Championship (campus site)
• March 26-29 – NCAA Regionals
• Thursday, April 9 – Frozen Four Semifinals (Las Vegas, NV)
• Saturday, April 11 – National Championship (Las Vegas, NV)

–#NCHChockey–