Can Alaska Win Back-to-Back United Collegiate Hockey Cups? Independent Season Preview

Men’s college hockey gets underway this weekend, but there are five teams which don’t fit the typical mold including a couple from the Last Frontier that have already played a pair of exhibitions against Canadian schools as regular-season games can be so difficult to schedule.

The Independent programs play outside of any NCAA scheduling conference, and offer a lot more than great nicknames. They have plenty of talent, grit, and tough competition.

Here’s everything you need to know before these schools embark on their 2026-27 campaigns:

Alaska

The Nanooks earned the first-ever United Collegiate Hockey Cup last season, besting host Lindenwood 4-3 in OT. It was the culmination of a relatively successful season for Alaska, which finished as the highest ranked Independent team in the NCAA at 35. It pulled out a couple of big successes against top-20 opponents, taking down No. 8/9 Quinnipiac in the opening round of the Icebreaker Tournament and trouncing No. 16 Providence 5-1 as part of a series split.

However, this season, they’ll have a different beast to tackle in Hockey East’s Boston University and Boston College, which have had a collective four Frozen Four appearances in the past four years. And the Nanonoks are lucky to get home ice against the Terriers, because after that, they'll be spending a month and a half on the road.

With that long journey laid out in front of them, Alaska will need to find scoring quickly. It lost five of their top six scorers at the end of last season, so it’ll be a tall task for sophomore Rylen Roersma to fill the space. Roersma tallied 22 points (9 goals, 13 assists), but it was a sizable drop-off from leading scorer Michael Citara (16g, 14a, 30 points), whose absence will surely be felt on the ice. To help fill the gap, Dominik Bartecko seems like a promising addition, having notched 17 points as the leading scorer with Mercyhurst last season.

Additionally, CHL recruiting came up big for the Nanooks. Linden Burrett tallied 35 points from the blue line last season for the Prince Albert Raiders (Western Hockey League), and brings in a lot of great experience, having played alongside top NHL Draft picks like Daxton Rudolph and Braeden Cootes. Across the country, Kyle Powers earned 34 points across 52 games with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar and brings leadership experience as their assistant captain.

However, Alaska’s biggest addition might just be their new goalie, Brown transfer Tyler Shea. After losing starter Lassi Lehti to Minnesota State, the Nanooks added someone with a similar record, but in a stronger conference. He may have only had three wins to his name last year, however the caliber of talent he’s defended against consistently is a valuable asset to an Independent team looking for a repeat title in the United Collegiate Hockey Cup.

Alaska Anchorage

The Seawolves struggled in 2025-26, finishing near the bottom of the NCAA with a 5-27-1 record. However, one of those five wins was a big one: a 4-3 victory over Denver, which would go on to win the national championship. This year, Alaska Anchorage will get home ice advantage for two games against the Pios, but it’ll need to find new scoring and new goaltending in order to pull out a win.

Last year’s win was in part due to a three-point performance from Joey Potter, who departed the team in favor of Lake Superior State. Potter was one of just four double-digit contributors for the Seawolves last season, two of whom stuck around for another year. Lead scorer Karter McNarland (4g, 17a, 21 points) and standout freshman Tye Spencer (8g, 5a, 13pts) will likely be looked at in big moments, as well as rising senior Aiden Westin, a four-year Seawolves skater who had a career-high eight goals last season.

In order to supplement the scoring, Alaska Anchorage will be looking at a couple of Canadians. Firstly, the Medicine Hat Tigers’ assistant captain Ethan Neutens should be expected to play big minutes after doubling his production from 12 to 24 points in the WHL last season. Alongside him, Samuel Boisvert of the BCHL will likely be making big moves on the collegiate stage. Boisvert may have joined the Nanaimo Clippers a little late into the season, but that didn’t stop him from jumping up to fourth on the team in points at more than a point-per-game pace.

The other part of the Seawolves’ success over Denver was a 46-save performance from sophomore netminder Tyler Krivtsov, but the Pioneers must’ve noticed his skill and decided they wanted him for themselves. Now, Alaska Anchorage will likely be looking to a transfer of their own to defend the net in Northern Michigan’s William Gramme. Gramme struggled with a 4.25 GAA and .894 save percentage last year, but he’ll have some tall tasks to start the season.

In order to be successful, though, the Seawolves can’t just focus on the big games, like Denver, Michigan, and Minnesota. They need to pace themselves through their full schedule, putting emphasis on improving their record overall.

Lindenwood

The Lions finished at a respectable No. 37 in the NCAA Percentage Index standings last season, but they’ll need some new personnel to step up if they want to do it again. Transfer season was a dagger to the heart of Lindenwood, as it lost the top seven scorers as part of a 10-man portal departure. They combined to account for more than 60 percent of the team’s point production last season, with each tallying 20 points or more.

The next players on the totem pole are junior Elias Ethan (1g, 14a, 15 pts), senior Michael Bevilacqua (6g, 8a, 14 pts), and sophomore Anselmo Rego (7g, 5a, 12 pts), and although Lindenwood will be bringing in a couple of transfers with similar marks — including Andrew and Jacob Leblanc and Will Schumacher, all of Mercyhurst — a lot of impact will likely come from the rookie class. The most notable is Caden Brown, the leading scorer of the WHL’s Regina Pats. An ‘05 birth year, Brown nearly doubled his season-over-season production, tallying 61 points in 64 games last season.

That kind of scoring is exactly what the Lions are looking for to repeat their victory over national champion Denver from last season. Lindenwood may have had hosting privileges in that weekend split, but they were an even .500 in every category — overall (15-15-0), home (9-9-0), and away (6-6-0) — so the Missouri ice wasn’t necessarily a determining factor. The Lions will have to prove themselves on the road, though, with away series at Colorado College (Nov. 6-7), Denver (Nov. 13-14), and North Dakota (Nov. 27-28).

To help them out, the Lions will be returning their goaltending tandem of Klayton Knapp and Liam Beerman. Beerman may have the better record at 10-6, but Knapp definitely took the brunt of the schedule, with five of Lindenwood’s six matchups against ranked opponents falling on the sophomore’s shoulders. Regardless, both of them own GAAs north of 3.00, so they’ll need plenty of scoring from the front end to contradict opponents’ tallies.

Long Island

The Sharks bring to the table a strong and experienced group this year. Scoring was a point of strength for Long Island last season, finishing 20th in the nation in goals per game with 3.18. This year, they’re returning three of their 20+ point scorers in J.R. Perdio (11g, 14a, 25 pts), Sexten Jennersjo (8g, 17a, 25 pts), and Dylan Kinch (9g, 15a, 24 pts). However, Long Island is also rounding out their forward group with some depth talent from Hockey East. UMass’s Bo Cosman and Maine’s Anthony Calafiore will be joining the mix, as well as Lowell defender August Classon.

With such a veteran group, the Sharks are testing their squad early, with away sets against No. 6 Minnesota Duluth and No. 4 Western Michigan in the first month of play. But these games will also be a test for Long Island’s defense, which struggled last year. As much as the Sharks were scoring, opponents were giving it right back, with LIU averaging 3.4 goals against per game.

There’s a good chance that Long Island will be sticking with Slovakia native Daniel Duris in net, and while his marks weren’t great on paper, with a 3.27 GAA and a .900 save percentage, there’s a lot more to the story than that. The Sharks played a lot of tough opponents last season, including BU, Penn State, and Connecticut, and Duris faced a large volume of shots, peaking at 46 against Merrimack. The Sharks didn’t take home a single ranked victory last season, and if they want a chance at winning some of those games, they’ll need to do a better job of clogging up shooting lanes and clearing the zone.

Stonehill

The Skyhawks had very few truly damaging departures last season. They graduated out a number of depth seniors, but the heart of their scoring stuck with the program, which should help the Skyhawks build from their 10-22-3 finish.

Rising senior Matthew Romer will look to build on his record-breaking year, where he set the Division-I goals record for Stonehill with 15 and tied the D-I record in power play goals with five. That scoring was supported by a few big playmakers, including returning skaters Anthony Galante and Billy Renfrew, who contributed 19 and 18 points, respectively.

To fill in the gaps, the Skyhawks reached heavily into the BCHL, where they drew out eight talented rookies to strengthen their roster. However, their most interesting rookie isn’t from the BCHL, but a little closer to home for Stonehill. Goaltender Mason Vaccari had his best season in his junior career last year, with a 2.70 GAA and .907 save percentage with the Flint Firebirds.

Last season, the Skyhawks had the most challenging schedule of any Independent team, and their location certainly helps with scheduling. Based out of Massachusetts, Stonehill faced top-20 teams from Hockey East, the ECAC, and the AHA, skating to an 0-7-1 record in those matchups. And they’ll have plenty more of that action this season, with Providence, Massachusetts, BC, and Dartmouth all on the horizon. However, the Skyhawks have been in a period of transition since the beginning of last season. While Stonehill is at work on new athletic facilities for their growing program, the men’s hockey team remains displaced, using Boston’s Warrior Ice Arena as a temporary home venue. But what rookie can complain about playing at the Bruins’ practice rink?

The Hockey Hub will preview a conference each day this week leading up to the start of the men's college hocley season on Friday. Check out our Big Ten preview.

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