COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – After claiming its third straight NCAA National Championship less than two weeks ago, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) is already looking ahead to next season, unveiling its 2026-27 conference schedule on Tuesday.
 
For the first time, the NCHC conference slate features 120 games, while the new NCHC Tournament format will include all 10 teams across three weeks on campus sites. The University of St. Thomas officially joins the National on July 1, 2026, as the Conference’s 10th member, which was first announced in May of 2024.
 
Even with the additional team, each member school will continue to play 24 conference games like in years past, with 12 at home and 12 away, as teams battle for the Julie and Spencer Penrose Memorial Cup, awarded to the NCHC regular-season champion. The conference calendar is once again spread across 14 weekends with each team playing 12 regular-season NCHC series. The 2027 NCHC Frozen Faceoff will then begin on Friday, March 5.
 
While the NCAA men’s hockey season starts on Friday, Oct. 2, the pursuit of the 2026-27 Penrose Cup doesn’t get underway until Friday, Oct. 30 with four NCHC series and eight teams beginning conference play. The opening weekend of play in the National features newcomer St. Thomas making its NCHC debut on the road at Miami, where Tommies head coach Enrico Blasi previously served as head coach of his alma mater for 20 years. The other series on Oct. 30-31 to begin conference play include Omaha at reigning NCAA National Champion Denver, Minnesota Duluth at Colorado College, and Arizona State at St. Cloud State.
 
The last two Penrose Cup champions don’t begin conference play until the following weekend on Nov. 6-7. Western Michigan travels west to defending Penrose Cup champs North Dakota for their lone regular-season meetings of the 2026-27 campaign.
 
A week later on Nov. 13-14, St. Thomas will host its first NCHC series at the new Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in Saint Paul, Minn., welcoming the Fighting Hawks of North Dakota. The following weekend (Nov. 20-21) will mark the first-ever five-series weekend in NCHC history as all 10 teams will be in action.
 
Highlighting the first weekend in December (Dec. 4-5) is a battle between last year’s Penrose Cup champions and NCHC Frozen Faceoff champions as North Dakota visits Denver for the rivals’ only regular-season series. The first half of conference play then wraps up on Dec. 11-12 with four series before heading into the holiday break.
 
Conference play resumes on Jan. 8-9 with another five-series slate, including Denver and Western Michigan meeting in Kalamazoo after the two teams have met in the postseason four times in the last two seasons. That weekend also includes travel partners St. Cloud State and St. Thomas playing a home-and-home series.
 
A rematch of the 2026 double-overtime NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship Game is set for Jan. 22-23 in Duluth as the Pioneers travel to take on the Bulldogs for the teams’ lone series of the regular season. All teams have a scheduled bye from conference play on either Jan. 29-30 or Feb. 5-6, though Gold Pan rivals CC and Denver are playing one of their home-and-home meetings on Saturday, Jan. 30 (with the first on Jan. 16).
 
The final three weekends of the regular season all feature five series with all 10 teams in action down the stretch. The NCHC regular season then wraps up on Feb. 26-27 with all members playing against their assigned ‘travel partner,’ as was previously the case under the eight-team schedule model. However, with the addition of St. Thomas, three sets of travel partners have changed with new travel partners as follows: Colorado College and Denver, Miami and Western Michigan, Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota, Arizona State and Omaha, and St. Cloud State and St. Thomas.
 
Teams will finish the regular season against their travel partner each year going forward, alternating who hosts the final weekend with Miami, UMD and ASU doing so in 2027 (CC/Denver and SCSU/UST will finish with home-and-home series). In addition, under the new, 10-team scheduling model, NCHC schools will always play their travel partner four times each season with one home and one away series. Along with a team’s travel partner, each member will face two other opponents both home and away per season on a four-year rotation. The remaining six opponents each team will only face once per year, either a home or away series. All NCHC members will face each other in at least one series during the season each year.
 
With the National increasing to 10 members for the upcoming season, the NCHC will also implement a new Frozen Faceoff playoff model in 2027, though it will remain entirely on campus sites for the second straight year and again take place over three weeks. After the ninth-place team did not qualify for the NCHC Tournament the last two years, all 10 teams will make the Frozen Faceoff starting in 2027.
 
The 2027 NCHC Tournament gets underway with best-of-three first round series from March 5-7, with the top five seeds hosting the bottom five seeds (No. 1 vs. No. 10, No. 2 vs. No. 9, No. 3 vs. No. 8, No. 4 vs. No. 7, and No. 5 vs. No. 6). The following weekend, the five remaining teams will be re-seeded and three games will take place. The two lowest remaining seeds (now seeds No. 4 and No. 5) will play a single-game quarterfinal on Friday, March 12 at the site of the No. 1 seed. The next night (Saturday, March 13), both NCHC Semifinals will take place with the No. 1 seed hosting the winner of the quarterfinal game and the No. 2 seed welcoming the No. 3 seed.
 
The NCHC Championship Game will then occur the next weekend on either Friday or Saturday night (March 19 or 20, 2027), with the highest remaining seed hosting the other semifinal winner. The exact Championship Game date will be announced later in the offseason. The winner of the NCHC Frozen Faceoff receives the National Cup and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 
Last season, North Dakota won the Julie and Spencer Penrose Memorial Cup for the seventh time as NCHC regular-season champions, the most in NCHC history, while Denver captured the National Cup on home ice as Frozen Faceoff champions for the fourth time, also the most by any team.
 
All dates listed for the 2026-2027 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 2026-27 schedule will be added once all NCHC teams announce their own non-conference schedules.
 
KEY DATES IN 2026-2027

• Friday, Oct. 2 – NCAA Official Start Date
• Friday, Oct. 30 – First NCHC conference games
• Saturday, Dec. 12 – Final NCHC conference games in 2026
• Friday, Jan. 8 – NCHC conference play resumes in 2027
• Saturday, Feb. 27 – NCHC regular season concludes
• Friday-Sunday, March 5-7 – NCHC First Round Series (campus sites)
• Friday, March 12 – Single-game NCHC Quarterfinal (at site of No. 1 seed)
• Saturday, March 13 – NCHC Semifinals (at two highest remaining seeds)
• Friday, March 19 OR Saturday, March 20 – NCHC Championship (at highest remaining seed)
• March 25-28 – NCAA Regionals
• Thursday, April 8 – NCAA Frozen Four Semifinals (Washington, D.C.)
• Saturday, April 10 – NCAA National Championship (Washington, D.C.)