SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's hockey team unveiled its 2025-26 schedule on Wednesday afternoon, highlighted by 18 regular-season games and one exhibition contest at the brand-new M&T Bank Center as well as the program's second trip across the pond for the annual Friendship Four in Belfast.

"We are incredibly excited for the 2025-26 season and cannot wait to be back in front of our fans at our new home," said head coach Josh Hauge. "The M&T Bank Center is a huge step forward for the future of Union Hockey, and we look forward to getting into the building and taking to the ice for the first time. We also have an incredible opportunity to head to Northern Ireland for the Friendship Four, which will be a great experience for our student-athletes and staff as well as our fans."  
 
The 2025-26 schedule comprises 34 regular-season games and two exhibitions, with the team's 22 ECAC Hockey matchups complemented by 12 competitive non-conference contests – including seven of the 12 to be played in Schenectady.

The new season gets underway on October 3 with an exhibition at Colgate University, followed the next day by the first men's game at M&T Bank Center against Army West Point on Saturday, October 4 at 5 p.m.
 
Following a weekend series at Mercyhurst University on October 10-11, Union will not leave the Capital Region for over a month thanks to seven home games and the back-end of a weekend home-and-home with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The home stretch starts with two games against Niagara University on October 17-18 before a home date with RPI to end October and an away matchup in Troy to start November. ECAC play continues the following weekend with North Country rivals Clarkson University and St. Lawrence University on November 7-8 before closing out the time at home with non-conference games against UMass Lowell (November 14) and the University of New Hampshire (November 15).
 
The Garnet Chargers will be away from home for the next two weekends, albeit with greatly varying distances from Schenectady. The team heads to Cornell University and Colgate University on November 21-22 before crossing the pond to take part in the annual Friendship Four event in Belfast, Northern Ireland on November 28-29. Union will battle with Sacred Heart University, Miami (Ohio) University and Rochester Institute of Technology for control of the Belpot Trophy, as Union looks to become the first team to win the event twice since its inception in 2015.
 
Union closes out 2025 with four more games on home ice, getting back into conference play on December 5-6 against Princeton University and Quinnipiac University before a pair of non-conference games against the University of Alaska Fairbanks on December 12-13.
 
After a bevy of home games in the opening half of the season, the Garnet Chargers will play only seven games in Schenectady over the season's final two months. The second half kicks off with an exhibition against the Royal Military College of Canada on January 3, followed by a road weekend at Quinnipiac and Princeton on January 9-10.
 
The team plays its first games of the year with Brown University and Yale University at home on January 16-17, followed by a season-long stretch of five straight games away from home. A tentatively scheduled Monday night matchup at Harvard University on January 19 would finish a busy stretch of three games in four days, followed by the annual Mayors' Cup game against RPI on January 24, as the Garnet Chargers look for a fifth-straight win in the annual matchup in Albany. A solo game at Dartmouth College comes up next to end the month of January, and February begins with a trip to the North Country to face St. Lawrence and Clarkson on February 6-7.
 
The team finally returns home for two against Colgate and Cornell on February 13-14. The squad then closes out the home portion of the regular season with games against Harvard (February 20) and Dartmouth (February 21), highlighted by Senior Day on Saturday against the Big Green. The regular season finishes up at Yale and Brown on February 27-28.
 
Season tickets for the 2025-26 season are available now by visiting UnionAthletics.com/tickets. Benefits of season tickets include the ability to renew the same seats on an annual basis; tickets to the Women's Ice Breaker Tournament in October and the annual Mayors' Cup games at MVP Arena; access to special events only for season ticket holders, including a preseason meet-and-greet with the men's and women's teams at M&T Bank Center; as well as other perks. Single-game tickets will be made available for purchase later in the summer.