DULUTH — Minnesota Duluth is making its fifth NCHC championship game appearance, at 7:07 p.m. Saturday against Denver at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus.
The road to the league’s postseason title game is typically pretty simple for the Bulldogs. Literally, UMD just hops on a bus in Duluth and heads south on Interstate 35 toward the Twin Cities.
Not this time.
The NCHC Frozen Faceoff has moved from being a four-team tournament played on a single weekend in Minneapolis or St. Paul to entirely on campus at the homes of the league’s nine schools over two Saturdays.
Last week the Bulldogs simply had to drive west on U.S. Highway 2 to play a semifinal game vs. North Dakota in Grand Forks. This week the team has to fly on short notice to Colorado for the league championship. UMD is departing from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Thursday, with its players, coaches and staff on multiple flights to Denver.
Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin credited his seasoned director of operations for the past 18 seasons, Christian Koelling, for getting an itinerary together on short notice. UMD will arrive in Colorado mid-afternoon Thursday, and is scheduled to practice at 11 a.m. Friday at Magness Arena.
“We have to go in a couple groups, just the way it worked out,” Sandelin said. “We’ll get there Thursday. We planned on that being a travel day, anyway. We’ll have a skate Friday and then the game on Saturday. Not maybe ideal, but it’s kind of what you expect at this time. We’ll get there and the guys are excited to go.”
Sandelin and the Bulldogs should not expect any sympathy from the Pioneers this week about their travel challenges. For 13 seasons, Denver has been getting on airplanes in mid-March for trips to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in Minneapolis, St. Paul and in 2021 to Grand Forks when the tournament was held entirely at Ralph Engelstad Arena during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before the NCHC, Denver had to find its way to and from Minnesota for the WCHA Final Five.
UMD has made six of the 12 NCHC Frozen Faceoffs — 2020 was canceled by the pandemic — while Denver has qualified for all 12. For half of those, the Pioneers have been the No. 1 or 2 seed, including the last time UMD won a Frozen Faceoff title in 2022.
The Bulldogs were the No. 5 seed and upset No. 1 Denver in the semifinals.
Denver head coach David Carle speaks to the media during the NCHC Media Day on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Clint Austin / File / Duluth Media Group
Denver coach David Carle is in his eighth season as head coach of the Pioneers, but has been on DU’s staff for all but one and a half seasons going back to 2008-09. He doesn’t remember running into any major travel issues getting to the Frozen Faceoff, but he said costs were often extreme for the Pioneers, even though the league covers a large chunk of travel costs.
But Carle does believe “there is a lot of unfairness,” to the previous conference postseason model.
“I think this model, the way we structure it, is try to protect our top teams. Keep them at home more so they don’t have to travel like we did,” Carle said. “Yeah, we’ve dealt with a lot of [expletive] with the travel. Certainly now we feel it is a more fair mechanism for the teams who play better and have higher seedings and don’t have to deal with as much travel.”
The University of Denver’s Magness Arena in Denver prior to a regular season NCHC game between Minnesota Duluth and the Pioneers on Jan. 30. Magness Arena will host the 2026 NCHC championship between the Bulldogs and Pioneers on Saturday, March 21, 2026.
Matt Wellens / Duluth News Tribune
While Denver may not have any sympathy for UMD, the Pioneers likely have some gratitude. After all, they have the Bulldogs to thank for the home championship game after UMD upset top-seeded North Dakota at Ralph Engelstad Arena last Saturday.
Bulldogs sophomore wing Max Plante said “that was really cool last week” to be part of an NCHC semifinal game at “The Ralph,” as it isn’t something many have gotten to do. The last time the NCHC held its postseason in Grand Forks, crowds were limited to 3,000 fans because of COVID-19.
Spring break meant there were “only” 9,902 fans last Saturday in Grand Forks, but all 6,315 seats at Magness Arena are expected to be sold out by puck drop Saturday. They had 6,327 fans there last Saturday for the OT win over Western Michigan in the semifinals.
“We got to figure out a couple flights to get the boys to Denver, but I think it’s cool,” Plante said. “That’s what playoff hockey is all about. I’m excited again to play in front of a hostile environment.”
Bulldogs face quick turnaround for NCAA tournament
Minnesota Duluth sophomore wing Callum Arnott celebrates with teammates after scoring on North Dakota in the first period on Saturday at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Eric Hylden / File / Grand Forks Herald
Carle said the biggest challenge for his program under the old playoff format wasn’t getting to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, but getting home.
And then turning around 2-3 days later and leaving again for the NCAA tournament.
UMD will be facing a similar situation Sunday win or lose on Saturday night. While Denver gets to stay in Colorado — they are hosting an NCAA regional in Loveland as a No. 2 seed — the Bulldogs will either be busing to Sioux Falls, South Dakota or flying to Albany, New York, or Worcester, Massachusetts early next week to be the No. 2 seed in one of those regionals.
The Bulldogs would need to leave for Sioux Falls or Worcester on Tuesday. They could wait until Wednesday to leave for Albany.
Koelling won’t have to book any flights for the players or coaches, either. The NCAA will provide a charter bus to Sioux Falls or plane to Albany and Worcester, though the size of the plane sent by the NCAA could impact travel plans.
The UMD women have not been provided a large enough plane the past two seasons to get everyone to regionals at Cornell and Ohio State via charter, so some staff had to fly commercial.
NCHC looks at early tweaks to playoff format
The NCHC will not be returning to a pre-determined, neutral site for the league semifinals or final — not as it continues to champion moving the regionals away from that format to campus home sites — but associate commissioner Michael Weisman said this week the league is looking at how it handles travel arrangements and costs for teams.
Under the previous format, the league did reserve flights out of Denver to the Twin Cities for at least one Colorado team — Denver or Colorado College — with the higher seed getting those plane tickets if both made the Frozen Faceoff like they did in 2023.
It’s hard to do something like that now, however, with so many scenarios in play. Prior to puck drop on Saturday, there were three possible venues in play for the NCHC championship — Magness, The Ralph and Lawson Ice Arena in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The league did have hotel rooms on hold in all three cities, Weisman said.
“That will probably be something we’ll revisit,” Weiseman said of travel, “whether it’s holding back a certain financial amount that could go to a team that has to spend a lot because it’s last minute travel, something like that.”