BECOMING RIVALS
The Union College men's hockey team makes its home debut on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. against the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Garnet Chargers faced the Nanooks twice last season and will play them a total of three times during the 2026-27 regular season. 

GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START
Union won its season debut on Saturday, Oct. 3 against Army West Point, scoring in each period and overcoming a two-goal, first period deficit to win 4-2. Senior Tyler Dunbar opened the scoring for the Garnet Chargers, junior Connor Smith netted the equalizer, and junior Will Felicio scored the game-winner. Smith also scored on an empty net, and sophomore Brayden Gillespie made 34 saves.

START OF A LONG TRIP
Alaska Fairbanks opened its season with a pair of losses to a ranked Boston University team at home last weekend. Before heading to Schenectady, the Nanooks will visit another ranked Boston team in #12 Boston College on Friday. Alaska's first two games on the East Coast mark the beginning of an eight-game road trip before finally returning home on Nov. 20. 

ONE GAME AT A TIME
Not including the exhibition against Colgate last Friday, Union opens the season with three consecutive single-game weekends. Its first multi-game weekend comes at the end of October with the beginning of conference play as Union visits Rensselaer before welcoming the Engineers to Schenectady as part of the annual home-and-home series. 

INSIDE THE SERIES 
After only seeing Alaska Fairbanks twice from 1990-2010, the Garnet Chargers and Nanooks have started to make annual trips to play each other. The two sides have played six times so far all-time, with four of those games occurring in the last two seasons. Since 2024-25, Union owns the edge with a 2-1-1 record and also has the upper hand overall at 3-2-1. Union has scored five goals against Alaska on two occasions, the first coming back in 1990 on neutral ice and then most recently on Dec. 12, 2025 in a 5-1 win. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
4 - Union won four straight games following its season-debut against Army last season.
12 - Union scored 12 power-play goals during non-conference regular-season games last year and added another man-up tally in its first game of the season against Army.
34 - Sophomore Brayden Gillespie made a single-game career-high 34 saves in the win over Army, marking his second 30+ save performance of his Union tenure.

LEADERSHIP QUARTET
Junior Lucas Buzziol was chosen as the Union captain for the 2026-27 season. He is the first junior to be named captain under Josh Hauge's guidance as head coach in the last five seasons. Junior Riley Brueck, and seniors Tyler Dunbar and Carter Rose will serve as alternate captains. 

SMITH VS ARMY
Since 2006, 36 Union men's hockey players have scored against Army. Junior Connor Smith leads the way with four career goals against the Black Knights in the last 20 years, while Daniel Carr and Wayne Simpson both had three. After the game, Smith admitted that his parents were rooting him on especially hard to score against Army in order to keep his streak alive after also scoring against Army in the previous two matchups. 

PICKING UP WHERE THEY LEFT OFF
Senior Tyler Dunbar (+17) and junior Riley Brueck (+16) led their team in +/- last season, and in Saturday's win over Army, those two both were in the positives. Brueck, sophomore Tommy Cronin, and junior Lucas Buzziol were +2 against the Black Knights, and Dunbar was +1. 

GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION
Sophomore Tommy Cronin and junior August Falloon had assists in their debut for Union after transferring in from Alaska Fairbanks and Minnesota, respectively. Cronin is the first Union player to have two or more points in their debut for the team since 2022 when Carter Korpi '26, Nate Hanley '26, and Chris Theodore '23 all did it in the same game against RIT on Oct. 1, 2022. Korpi had two goals, Hanley had two assists, and Theodore had three helpers in a 4-3 win over the Tigers that day.

MORE DEBUTS
Junior Jack Henry, and first-years Elliot Gulley, Nathan Free, and Luke Garry all made their Union debuts against Army, and for the three first-years, they were making their collegiate debuts. Free led the newcomers with three shots on goal, and Henry made his presence felt with a pair of blocked shots. 

FIRST LOOK AT SPECIAL TEAMS
For the first time since 2019-20, Union scored on the power play in its season debut. On the other side against Army, Union successfully killed off its only penalty-kill chance, backing up its top-ranked PK unit from a season ago. 

MINIMIZE MISTAKES
The Garnet Chargers only had one penalty last game against Army and were 3-0 last season when only serving two penalty minutes. The last time Union lost a game with only two penalty minutes was Dec. 30, 2024 vs Bently in a 4-3 loss. 

DODGING THE BARRAGE
Union defeated Army despite being outshot 36-29. Union last won a game while being outshot on Feb. 20, 2026 against Harvard, when junior Cameron Korpi made 34 saves. Army had 16 games with 30+ shots last season and was 5-7-4 in those contests.

TEDDY BEAR REVENGE
The last time Alaska visited Union, junior Lucas Buzziol scored what would have been the first goal of the game, and consequently, the goal that sent thousands of stuffed animals onto the ice for Union's Teddy Bear Toss game. However, Alaska challenged the goal, and it was determined Buzziol kicked the puck into the net, therefore wiping his teddy-bear goal off the board. The goal didn't count, but Union won in the end by a score of 3-2 and the toys were thankfully donated to children in the area anyways. 

ALASKA HISTORY
Junior Riley Brueck's first collegiate goal came against Alaska Fairbanks on Nov. 8, 2024. Junior Lucas Buzziol, senior Tyler Dunbar, and junior Luke Buss have also scored against the Nanooks in recent memory. 

DOWN TWO THE WIRE
The Garnet Chargers trailed Army West Point 2-0 in the first period and came back to win 4-2 last game. It was Union's fifth comeback win by at least two goals since the beginning of last season. Union also erased two-goal deficits against Colgate and Dartmouth last season before those games ended in ties, and Union also forced overtime against Clarkson last season despite trailing by two on two separate occasions throughout the game. 

YOU WERE DOWN 2-0 TOO?
Union was one of three teams around the NCAA last week to face a 2-0 deficit and win. Maryville defeated St. Lawrence 3-2 after being down 2-0, and Michigan trailed Bowling Green 2-0 in a 4-3 victory. Teams that scored first were 24-4 last week across the NCAA, meaning Union was also one of just four teams to allow the first goal of the game and coming back to win.

ROAD BUMP ? FOUR STRAIGHT
Union conceded first in its win against Army West Point on Saturday before ripping off four unanswered goals. The last time Union scored four straight goals after being scored on was Dec. 12, 2025 against Alaska Fairbanks in a 5-1 win. 

EN + PP = W
Union scored a power-play and an empty-net goal against Army on Saturday in its 4-2 win. Union had five such games last season and have 15 in total since Josh Hauge took over last season. 

KILLED THE KILL
The Garnet Chargers led the country in penalty-kill percentage in 2025-26 with a .904 mark. Union only allowed 11 power-play goals overall last year and had an 11-game stretch near the end of the season without allowing a goal while a man down.

PAY ATTENTION 
The Garnet Chargers had several nationally-relevant statistical marks other than just the PK last season. Union averaged 3.78 goals per game in 2025-26, which were the third-most in the country. The Garnet Chargers also allowed the 21st-fewest goals in the country per game (2.65) and had the ninth-largest average scoring margin at 1.14. Union's 3.78 goals per game were its most in a season since 2016-17. 

20 AIN'T BAD
The Garnet Chargers won 22 games last season marking their most in a single year since 2016-17. It was also the program's first 20-win season since 2018-19. Union had five different winning streaks of at least three games throughout 2025-26 as well. 

HAUGE HEAT CHECK
Four full years into the Josh Hauge-era in Schenectady, the Garnet Chargers have shown marked improvement each season with him at the helm. After 14 wins in 2022-23, his squad increased its single-season win total by two the next year, three the year after that, and three more from 2024-25 to 2025-26. Hauge has also coached two All-Americans in John Prokop '26 and senior Tyler Dunbar, and Prokop and Brandon Buhr '26 have both moved on from Union under Hauge's guidance to sign professional contracts. 

TROPHY SZN
There were plenty of Union Hockey alums hoisting hardware last season. Shayne Gostisbehere '15 won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes, becoming the 35th player in NHL history to win both a Stanley Cup and an NCAA Championship. Brandon Buhr '26 and John Prokop '26 were members of the AHL's champions, the Toronto Marlies, as the team went on to win the Calder Cup.

STEP UP
Union lost its top-three point scorers from a season ago as well as four of the top-five. Two of Union's top returning point scorers, senior Tyler Dunbar and sophomore Etienne Lessard, play along the blue line. Look for junior forwards Riley Brueck and Lucas Buzziol to take a leap in carrying the load in offensive production. Those two have combined for 70 points through their first two+ seasons together in Schenectady and also had three assists between the two of them in Union's season opener against Army on Oct. 3. 

ALL-AMERICAN DUNBAR
Senior Tyler Dunbar emerged as a superstar in the NCAA last season after transferring to Union from Colorado College. The 6-1 defender had 33 points as a junior in 2025-26, which were the fifth-most among defensemen in the country. He earned AHCA All-America East Second Team honors for his efforts and was recognized as an ECAC Hockey Preseason All-League Team member. His 14 goals are tied for seventh-most among active NCAA defensemen after scoring to open the 2026-27 season against Army West Point on Saturday.

JUNIOR BUT MIGHTY
Union returns 17 of its 18 non-seniors from a season ago, including a large junior class. Union's nine juniors are tied for the fifth-most juniors in college hockey this season. Including transfers Jack Henry and August Falloon, Union's current junior class combined for 88 points during the 2025-26 campaign.

NEW U
Coach Hauge and his staff brought in seven first-year players featuring five forwards and two defensemen. Among the seven players, Gavin and Luke Garry are twins from Excelsior, Minn., and several players had captain or alternate captain experience in juniors such as Brady O'Malley and Elliot Gulley. 

LAND OF 10,000 LAKES AND 6 GARNET CHARGERS
Senior Jacob Jeannette, junior Connor Smith, sophomore Tommy Cronin, first-year Gavin Garry, first-year Luke Garry, junior August Falloon and head coach of the Garnet Chargers Josh Hauge all hail from the state of Minnesota. The Electric City of Schenectady is located over 1,000 miles away from the Land of 10,000 Lakes. 

A GOPHER, HUSKY, AND NANOOK…
Juniors Jack Henry and August Falloon and sophomore Tommy Cronin transferred into Union ahead of this season after previous stops in the NCAA. Cronin has experience playing the Garnet Chargers, coming from Alaska Fairbanks. Falloon played in the Big 10 with Minnesota, and Henry comes from Northeastern and Hockey East. (Bonus, unofficial note, Henry has now lived in and played in two of the hardest cities to pronounce in New York State, being raised in Skaneateles, N.Y. (Skinny-at-liss) and playing hockey here in Schenectady, N.Y.  

STILL A FAMILY AFFAIR
Despite Carter Korpi '26 flying the nest and graduating last season, Union is still home to a pair of siblings on the hockey team. First-years Luke and Gavin Garry will team up in Schenectady this season on Coach Hauge's squad. Unlike the Korpi brothers, this will not be the first time the Garrys have played together. The twins were on the same juniors team just a season ago in Sioux City.

LENT A HAND
Nate Hanley '26 graduated with the 10th-most assist in Union's DI history (72). Over his four years in Schenectady, he assisted on 15.6 percent of Union's 461 goals. When you factor in 25 goals of his own, he was in some way a part of 21 percent of the goals Union scored from the 2022-23 season to 2025-26. 

HERE'S TO 300 MORE!
Union earned its 300th ECAC Hockey victory with a win against #20/19 Princeton on Jan. 10. The Garnet Chargers originally accepted the ECAC's invitation to join its Division I men's hockey league on Jan. 28, 1991. The program replaced Army, keeping the number of teams in the league at 12. Union played its first Division I contest Nov. 1, 1991, a 9-6 loss to Merrimack. On Jan. 17, 1992, Craig Ferrero scored with 10 seconds left in overtime as Union recorded its first ECAC victory, a 2-1 triumph at Dartmouth. Luigi Villa stopped 45 shots for Union in goal. 12,047 days later, Tyler Dunbar scored the game-winner while Brayden Gillespie made 21 saves in Union's 300th conference win.

M&T BANK CENTER
The men's and women's Union hockey teams call the state-of-the-art M&T Bank Center home. The Garnet Chargers are 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.