| Union College vs. Alaska Fairbanks |
| Friday, Dec. 12, 2025 • Schenectady, N.Y. • M&T Bank Center • 7:00 PM |
| Live Stats • Video Stream |
| Union College vs. Alaska Fairbanks |
| Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025 • Schenectady, N.Y. • M&T Bank Center • 5:00 PM |
| Live Stats • Video Stream |
TEDDY BEAR TOSS: The Union College men's hockey team hosts Alaska Fairbanks on Friday, Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 13 at 5 p.m. to wrap up its 2025 schedule. Saturday's game will feature Union's first Teddy Bear Toss, where fans will throw new and unwrapped plush toys onto the ice after the Garnet Chargers score their first goal of the game. Fans that bring a plush toy or make a toy donation in partnership with C.O.C.O.A. House will receive a voucher for a free coffee or hot chocolate.
AN UPSET AT THE HARBOR: The Garnet Chargers are coming off a 4-0 victory over #8 Quinnipiac on Dec. 6, marking their first win over the Bobcats since Nov. 10, 2018. Junior
Tyler Dunbar recorded a point on each of Union's four goals, and first-year
Brayden Gillespie made 31 saves to secure the first shutout of his collegiate career.
OF THE WEEK: Dunbar was named ECAC Hockey's Adapt Nutrition Defender of the Week, and Gillespie earned Rookie of the Week honors from the league. It's the second time this season two Union players earned accolades from ECAC Hockey in the same week. Dunbar earned his second weekly honor, and Gillespie secured his first.
A LOOK AT THE NANOOKS: Alaska Fairbanks has only played four regular-season home games this season compared to nine road or neutral-site contests. The Nanooks are 3-2-1 against ECAC Hockey opponents, coming off a sweep of Clarkson and St. Lawrence at the Adirondack Winter Invitational in Lake Placid, N.Y. Michael Citara leads his team 14 points, but is the only Nanook in double-digits.
INSIDE THE SERIES: Alaska Fairbanks made the trip to Schenectady last season and won a shootout after a 3-3 tie, then beat Union 6-4 the next night. Union's only win against the Nanooks came in Troy, N.Y. during the RPI Invitational on Dec. 29, 1990. Union is 2-2-1 against all Alaska schools, with a 4-3 win over Alaska Anchorage in The Last Frontier on Oct. 16, 2010.
GOOD HABITS BEFORE THE NEW YEAR
Union has 10 wins before the calendar turns to January for the first time since the 2017-18 season. The Garnet Chargers had 14 victories before the ball dropped in the 2016-17 season.
BRANDON BUHR BOOST
Brandon Buhr has 19 points on the season. Union is unbeaten (10-0-1) when he records at least one point, but winless (0-5-1) when Buhr is held out of the box score. Buhr is one of four NCAA Division I men's hockey players in the top 25 of scoring to have at least one point in all of their team's wins. Adam Flammang of Bemidji State (24 points), Stiven Sardarian of Michigan Tech (23 points), and St. Cloud State's Tyson Gross (20) have all been active participants in all of their team's victories.
BUHR'S MAGIC NUMBER
Brandon Buhr averages 1.17 goals per game in contests where he has five or more shots on goal. He has only been held out of the back of the net three times in his career when he gets five or more shots on target in a game.
MAC ATTACK
Colby MacArthur scored his fifth goal of the season in the loss to Princeton Friday night. He had an assist on Saturday and is the only Garnet Charger with an active point streak.
GILLESPIE'S ISLAND
Brayden Gillespie made 31 saves during his first collegiate shutout on Saturday against #8 Quinnipiac. He is the first Union netminder to shut out a ranked foe since Alex Sakellaropoulos '17 against #13 Merrimack on Nov. 28, 2015.
SETTING THE (DUN)BAR HIGH
Tyler Dunbar is tied for the second-most points among defensemen in NCAA Division I men's hockey with Denver's Eric Pohlkamp. Boston U's Cole Hutson leads blueliners with 20 points.
NO SOPHOMORE SLUMPS
Sophomores accounted for five of Union's 11 points in the 4-0 win over #8 Quinnipiac. Second-year players in Schenectady have combined for 59 points on the season, led by
Ben Muthersbaugh with 16. His 16 points are tied for the 21st-most among all sophomores in NCAA Division I men's hockey.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE MAN ADVANTAGE
Union scored three power-play goals over the weekend against Princeton and #8 Quinnipiac, and have 12 power-play goals in the last nine games. The Garnet Chargers' 19 power-play goals are tied for third most in college hockey.
NINE IS THE NUMBER
Of the 10 teams in the top 10 of power-play percentage, Union, Notre Dame, Michigan, and Minnesota State all lead the way with nine players each with at least one power-play goal this season.
THE PK LEADER (ESSENTIALLY)
Union owns the second-best penalty-kill unit in all of NCAA Division I men's hockey at 91.8%. Harvard leads the country at 93.3%, but has 31 fewer penalty-kill chances than the Garnet Chargers.
FIRST-YEAR FIREPOWER
Etienne Lessard and
Brayden Gillespie are the first Union classmates to win ECAC Hockey's Rookie of the Week award in the same season since Oct. 2022.
Nick Young,
John Prokop, and
Cal Mell all won the award during their first seasons in Garnet & White that month.
NON-CON SUCCESS
The Garnet Chargers are 7-1-1 (.833) in non-conference action so far, tying their best start ever to non-league play (2018-19 and 1976-77) through nine games. Union was 7-1-3 (.773) after 11 non-conference games in 2018-19 and 9-1-1 (.864) after 11 non-conference games in 1976-77. That Union team 49 years ago did not lose its second out-of-conference game until the final game of the season.
LIMITING THE Ls
Union suffered back-to-back losses for the first time against Miami and Princeton, 16 games into the season. The last time it took Union that long to drop consecutive games was 2016-17, when the Garnet Chargers didn't lose in back-to-back contests until their 21st game of the season.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Nick Young took over the team lead in blocked shots after denying six attempts against Princeton and Quinnipiac. He overtook Dunbar for the team lead, who was busy registering a point on all of Union's four goals against Quinnipiac, but Dunbar still had three blocks on the weekend.
ABOUT THE LAST 30 DAYS
Brandon Buhr was named the ECAC Hockey Forward of the Month, presented by Bluebird Hotels for the month of November. It is the first time Union has swept the Forward of the Month award between the men's and women's teams after Union women's hockey junior Maddie Leaney also secured the honor for November.
CHARGED UP
Union will have a 20-day break after hosting Alaska Fairbanks before welcoming Royal Military College to town for an exhibition on Jan. 3.
BACK-TO-BACK
Union's first regular-season contest of 2026 will be in Hamden, Conn. on Friday, Jan. 9 against Quinnipiac, meaning the Garnet Chargers are playing back-to-back conference games against the Bobcats.
TO THE LIMIT
For only the second time in the last 10 years, Union has not allowed multiple power-play goals in a game through the first two months of the season (2023-24). Union has allowed five power-play goals so far and gave up three in 2023-24 before the calendar flipped to December.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Union was featured as College Hockey News' "Team of the Week" after a 2-0 weekend on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 where it outscored UMass Lowell and New Hampshire 13-1 overall and improved to 8-2-1 on the season. During an interview with College Hockey News' editor, head coach
Josh Hauge said, "I love our hockey team ... We believe we're good ... We're excited about trying to continue to grow the program and get it back to where it can be."
ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END
Despite beating UMass Lowell by six on Nov. 7, Union's season-long streak of never being outshot in a period came to an end in the second period. Union was outshot 11-10 during the middle stanza. The two sides finished the game with 33 shots each, marking the first time Union did not outshoot its opponent through 60 minutes all season.
M&T BANK CENTER
This season, the men's and women's Union hockey teams will call the state-of-the-art M&T Bank Center its home, becoming the primary tenant of the 100,000-square-foot multi-purpose venue. The arena holds a capacity of 2,200 for hockey games and expands to 3,600 for other sporting events, trade shows, special events, and conventions. Highlights include seven luxury suites, a spacious hospitality suite, two full-service concession stands, and an elegant bar overlooking the Mohawk River. M&T Bank Center is the 16th hockey venue in the NCAA to open in the last 10 years.
DON'T COUNT THESE GUYS OUT
Union stormed back from a 3-0 deficit and scored five unanswered goals in a 5-3 win over Mercyhurst on Oct. 11. It marked the Garnet Chargers' first victory after trailing by three goals since Dec. 1, 2013, when they erased a 4-1 deficit to beat Penn State. Daniel Ciampini scored the game-winner in that comeback with three seconds left in regulation, breaking the hearts of 5,177 Penn State fans in University Park, Pa.
BUHR WATCHING
College Hockey News released its "Players to Watch" in ECAC Hockey and recognized
Brandon Buhr with some high praise. "Buhr is shifty and has a good shot, which makes him successful. He is also good at getting to the important areas of the ice, which is the way his coach,
Josh Hauge, would like his team to play. Union as a whole is returning a deep group, and [Buhr] could be in the mix for Player of the Year."
NEED A RECHARGE?
The Garnet Chargers lost 12 players from its 2024-25 roster to graduation, the transfer portal, and the pros. Those departures accounted for 101 points last season, but Union still kept its top goal scorer in
Brandon Buhr (19) and point scorer in
Colby MacArthur (29). Not to mention, four of Union's 20-point scorers from last season are still on the squad, and Union's 78 "returning" goals are the seventh-most in Division I.
FRESH FACES
Hauge and his staff brought in two of each positional group to round out their recruiting class.
Alex Laurenza (F),
Troy Pelton (F),
Etienne Lessard (D),
Ollie Chessler (D)
Brayden Gillespie (G), and
Brendan Holahan (G) will all get their first taste of college hockey this season.
Will Felicio (D, Michigan),
Carter Rose (D, Clarkson),
Tyler Dunbar (D, Colorado College),
Cameron Korpi (G, Michigan), and
Luke Buss (F, Wisconsin) end up in Schenectady as transfers after earlier stops around the Division I hockey landscape.
WHAT'S UP BROTHER?
They say your teammates are like your brothers. For Carter and
Cameron Korpi, one of their teammates actually is their brother. Carter is three years older than Cameron, and this will be the first time they've played hockey on the same team together (other than knee hockey games in the basement of their childhood home).
PROFESSIONAL PROKOP
It's no secret
John Prokop was a massive part of the Union defense last year. In three seasons, Prokop notched 65 assists and registered 85 points. Now, the AHCA East Second Team All-American is skating professionally for the Toronto Marlies in the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. He's looking to join the likes of Nick DeSimone and Shayne Gostisbehere as former Union hockey players in the NHL.
YOU LOVE TO "C" IT
Nick Young earned captain honors in his senior season. He's been along for the ride for all of head coach
Josh Hauge's tenure so far. The alternate captains on the team are
Parker Lindauer and
Brandon Buhr.
HIGH HOPES IN SCHENECTADY
Head coach
Josh Hauge told the media on Tuesday, Sept. 30 that if his team equals its No. 5 preseason ranking, then the season will be a disappointment. Union did finish fourth in the standings last year before an early exit at home to Dartmouth in the ECAC playoffs. That fourth-place finish was Union's best since placing second in 2017-18. The Garnet Chargers' most recent regular-season title came in 2013-14, the same season Union won its first national championship.
SENIORITY PRIORITY
Union hits the ice with eight seniors, tied with Niagara and St. Thomas for the seventh-largest senior class across Division I. The Garnet Chargers' average age as a team is 22.5, making them tied for the seventh-oldest team in the country.
