COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - While the NCHC won a third straight National Championship and eighth in 10 tournaments thanks to Denver, and the season may be complete, there is still one more title to be handed out, as the annual NCHC Play of the Year Tournament returns. Over the next two weeks fans will once again decide the best play in the NCHC for the 2025-26 season through a bracket-style tournament.

Throughout the year, the NCHC posted the Top Goals of the Week each Tuesday and Top Saves of the Week each Wednesday. From those great plays during the regular season, the Conference selected 14 plays, plus two saves from the NCAA Tournament, to create a 16-play bracket. For the first time, one side of the bracket is all goals and the other side all saves, allowing a Goal of the Year and a Save of the Year to be crowned, before duking it out for Play of the Year honors. Each NCHC team is represented with at least one play in the bracket, while some have two and the champion Pioneers have three plays in the field. Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, April 15, fans will vote on which goal or save advances to the next round based on the bracket match-ups. Voting will only last approximately one day for each match-up (aside from the final), culminating in the 2025-26 NCHC Play of the Year being announced on Wednesday, April 29.

The 2025-26 NCHC Play of the Year bracket is below with one or two match-ups to be posted on NCHChockey.com each day for voting, leading up to the final.

The schedule for each round of voting is as follows:

• Wednesday, April 15 - Barrett Hall, SCSU vs. Marcus Nguyen, Omaha + Yan Shostak, SCSU vs. Johnny Hicks, Denver
• Thursday, April 16 - Doug Grimes, Miami vs. Max Plante, UMD + Hampton Slukynsky, WMU (1) vs. Matteo Drobac, Miami
• Friday, April 17 - Brendan McMorrow, DU vs. Bennett Schimek, ASU + Quentin Miller, DU vs. Kaidan Mbereko, CC
• Saturday, April 18 - Noah Powell, ASU vs. Abram Wiebe, UND + Hampton Slukynsky (WMU) (2) vs. Adam Gajan, UMD
• Monday, April 20 - Two quarterfinal match-ups (Goal of the Year semifinals)
• Tuesday, April 21 – Two quarterfinal match-ups (Save of the Year semifinals)
• Wednesday, April 22 – Goal of the Year match-up
• Thursday, April 23  - Save of the Year match-up
• Friday, April 24 – Play of the Year championship match-up
• Wednesday, April 29 - Play of the Year revealed on social media/NCHChockey.com

Each match-up on NCHChockey.com will show both goals or both saves and have a poll for fans to vote on the better play, with the highest vote total advancing. Fans may only vote once per day per match-up with the winners announced in the following day’s match-up story.

The defending Play of the Year champion is former Western Michigan forward Alex Bump, who became the second straight Bronco to win NCHC Play of the Year (Cam Rowe in 2024) with his double-overtime championship-winning goal against Denver in the 2025 NCHC Frozen Faceoff title game. While Bump is now in the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers, his Western Michigan teammate, sophomore goalie Hampton Slukynsky, has a pair of stellar stops in the 2026 bracket.

The video below shows all 16 entries (eight goals/eight saves) up for 2025-26 NCHC Play of the Year to get you ready for the tournament! The bracket and match-ups are below the video.
 

 

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