GAMEDAY | SFU Red Leafs at UMass Minutemen 01.02.2026

AMHERST, MA – SFU kicks off the new year with a visit to the University of Massachusetts.

The Red Leafs return to NCAA action for the first time since early November after earning a 2-1 shootout victory over the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

“It’s always a great opportunity to get to play against some of these top NCAA programs,” said Head Coach Mark Coletta on returning to Amherst.

SFU’s 4-8-2 record, while not an ideal look for a program that has strived for the past 3 years to be a competitive mainstay at the NCAA Division One level, doesn’t tell the whole story. As a completely independent program, four of the team’s last five losses have been decided by a single goal with the exception of the Princeton loss, which included an empty net tally for the Tigers. In that span the Red Leafs also came away with the aforementioned 2-1 victory over the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks, which has been consistently the top independent NCAA D1 hockey program since their inception 100 years ago.

“I don’t think there’s ever been another Canadian university hockey program that has done what we’ve done over the last three years,” said Coletta, “it’s challenging, to say the least, and we can’t thank our SFU Hockey alumnus enough for making this all possible.”

SFU returns to Amherst for the first time since December of 2024, where the Red Leafs held their own with the game tied at three apiece late into the third period before the Minutemen scored in the last couple minutes to pry the victory away by a score of 4-3. SFU’s record at the time reflected a team that was still sorting out how to compete at that level, whereas this roster is better equipped now to take these games into their own hands.

Puck drop is scheduled for 4:00pm PT.

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