The 12th-ranked Colorado College Tigers hit the road for the first time in the 2026-27 season with a weekend series at No. 17 UConn. The first game is on Friday, Oct. 16, in Storrs, Ct., beginning at 5 p.m. (MT). The contest on Saturday, Oct. 17, is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. (MT). 

Live streaming and live stats links can be found on the CC Hockey schedule page at CCTigers.com.

88 Years of Tiger Hockey
This season marks the 88th year of varsity ice hockey at Colorado College and 14th season as a member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. CC was a charter member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (1951-52) for 62 seasons before joining the NCHC with seven other schools prior to the 2013-14 campaign.

How To Listen / Watch
Both games this weekend will be broadcast live in the Colorado Springs area and Southern Colorado on KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM / 95.5 FM / 1240 AM, with the 'Voice of the Tigers' Ken Landau. Both games will also be streamed live on ESPN+.
  
Last Time Out
Colorado College defeated the U.S. Under-18 National Team, 4-1, in an exhibition game at Ed Robson Arena on Friday, Oct. 9. 

Movin' On Up
The Tigers moved up three spots to No. 12 in this week's USCHO.com national poll, while they are ranked No. 13 in the USA Hockey poll. That is the highest ranking for CC since Dec. 30, 2024 (No. 8). This will mark the first games where CC and its opponent are ranked since the TIgers (No. 17 at the time) played No. 4 Denver, Nov. 14-15, 2025.

The Coaches 
Kris Mayotte is in his sixth season at the helm of the Tigers. He came to Colorado College after serving two years as an assistant coach at the University of Michigan, and was an assistant coach for Providence College when the Friars won the NCAA Division I title in 2015. Mayotte was the NCHC Coach of the Year following the 2023-24 campaign … Mike Cavanaugh is in his 14th season as head coach at UConn. In 2024-25, he was named Hockey East Coach of the Year, leading the Huskies to a 23-12-4 overall record with an appearance in the Hockey East Championship game and an NCAA Tournament appearance. Cavanaugh spent 18 seasons at Boston College prior to moving to UConn. 

Previous Meetings
Colorado College and UConn have met three times, with the Tigers holding a 2-1 advantage. The teams split a pair of games to open last season at Robson Arena.     

Another Tough Schedule  
The Tigers are scheduled to play 18 of their 36 regular-season games against teams that 
are ranked in the Top 15 in the USCHO.com national preseason poll. In addition, CC has 16 games scheduled against nine of the last 10 national champions (UMass, Minn. Duluth, Denver, North Dakota, and Western Michigan).  

Most NHL Draft Picks on Roster in Program History
With the addition of freshmen Zach Olsen and Michal Pradel, the 2026-27 roster has 11 players that have been drafted by the NHL, the most on a roster in program history. 

2026-27 Leadership
Senior defenseman Max Burkholder has been named team captain of the Colorado College hockey team for the 2026-27 season, while junior forward Owen Beckner and senior forwards Drew Montgomery, Bret Link and Riley Stuart will serve as assistant captains. Burkholder will wear the 'C' for the second conseutive year after playing just three games last season. Beckner tied for the team lead with 27 points and 15 assists in 2025-26, while Montgomery had 16 points (8g,8a) and tied for second on the team with eight goals. Link is the team's career active leading scorer with 53 points (18g,35a), including 17 (7g,10a) last season and Stuart posted career highs of four goals, four assists, eight points and 33 games played last season as a junior.
 
Tiger Tales 
Jackson Unger was named the KJ Branding NCHC Goaltender of the Week following the season-opening weekend sweep over UMass ... The 2026-27 season opener marked the earliest regular-season game in program history (Oct. 2) ... Unger's shutout on Oct. 2 was the first of his career and CC's first since Nov. 23, 2024, by Kaidan Mbereko in a 1-0 victory over St. Cloud State ... It was CC's first shutout in a season opener since Oct. 10, 2008, when Richard Bachman blanked Ala.-Huntsville, 1-0 ... Klavs Veinbergs, who led the NCHC and finished second in the country in faceoff percentage (61.1%) last season, won 24 of 31 faceoffs against UMass (77.4%); He is the nation's top returner in faceoff percentage ... The Tigers are tied for sixth in the country with the highest percentage (85%) of returning goals and tied for seventh (81%) of returning points. 

Tigers Picked Sixth in NCHC Preseason Poll
Colorado College was picked sixth in the 2026-27 NCHC Preseason Poll. 

1.    Denver, 304 points (14 first-place votes)
2.    North Dakota, 302 (12)
3.    Minnesota Duluth, 273 (7)
4.    Western Michigan, 237
5.    Miami, 175
6.    Colorado College, 159
7.    St. Cloud State, 121
8.    St. Thomas, 102
9.    Arizona State, 73
10.    Omaha, 69

The Incoming Class
Six newcomers join the Tiger hockey program for the 2026-27 season. The incoming class consists of five incoming freshmen and one transfer: Carmelo Crandell (Arizona State - NCHC), Ty Halaburda (Kelowna Rockets - WHL), Blake Jones (Nanaimo Clippers - BCHL), Zach Olsen (Saskatoon Blades - WHL), Michal Pradel (Tri-City Storm - USHL) and
Sebastian Vitali (New Jersey Jr. Titans - NAHL). The six newcomers ties Princeton and Harvard for the fewest in the country. 

Two New Assistant Coaches
Head coach Kris Mayotte welcomes two new faces to the staff this season, Dana Borges (assistant coach) and David Powlowski (assistant coach / director of operations). Borges comes to Colorado Springs after spending three seasons as an assistant coach at Arizona State, where he focused on player development as well as recruiting. He helped recruit and develop an All-American, five NCHC all-conference selections, five NHL draft picks, including ASU's first-ever first-round pick and three players on the 2026 Central Scouting List for this year's draft. Borges, who played collegiately at Stonehill College, has also coached at Colgate and Williams College. Powlowski, meanwhile, spent the last three seasons as an assistant general manager and assistant coach for the Rochester Jr. Americans of the North American Hockey League (NAHL). He worked primarily with the team's defensive unit and focused on scouting and recruiting, including the organization's draft day operations. Powlowski played college hockey and golf at Nazareth College.

Oh Brother
Sophomores Tomas and Mateo Mrsic are the 21st set of brothers to play hockey together at Colorado College and the first since Cody (2012-16) and Trey Bradley (2015-19) during the 2015-16 season. Other prominent brothers to lace their skates up at the same time in Colorado Springs include the only two NHL first-round draft picks from CC, Jaden (St. Louis, 2010) and Rylan Schwartz played together from 2010-12, while Mark Stuart (Boston, 2003) played two years with each of his older brothers, Mike from 2000-02 and Colin from 2002-04. Marty Sertich, the 2005 Hobey Baker winner, and his brother, Mike, played together at CC during the '04-05 campaign.

13 Games Televised This Season 
Colorado College will have 13 games broadcast live on television this season, including 10 games by partner SOCO CW. SOCO CW is available to viewers throughout Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Southern Colorado and televised the Oct. 2 game vs. #10 UMass. In addition, KRDO-13 (ABC) in Colorado Springs will televise both home games against Denver in The Gold Pan rivalry. The Feb. 26 game at Denver will be televised on Altitude. 

Season Six at Robson Arena
Never in the storied 80-plus years history of Colorado College Tiger Hockey had the team played its home games on campus. Thanks to the generosity of donors, including former CC hockey player Ed Robson '54 the school's Board of Trustees, that changed on October 8, 2021, when the Tigers and St. Lawrence battled in the first regular-season game at Ed Robson Arena. Colorado College was one of seven Division I teams to surpass capacity on a per game basis last season at 102.7 percent.