Best College Hockey Rivalries: Honorable Mention

The rivalry between Alaska (Fairbanks) and Alaska Anchorage for the Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup is one of the most unique in college hockey. Born primarily from proximity, the two have been fierce rivals for more than 50 years. And yet, the location also means that the rivalry involves a certain level of mutual support. 

Dubbed “the coldest rivalry in the country,” the Nanooks and the Seawolves have officially played each other since 1980, but the rivalry goes back much further. Alaska had hockey teams since 1925, though they often had to shutter the team due to the more than 2,000 miles between themselves and other programs. In that time, though, they’d often play assorted teams from Anchorage, which kickstarted the rivalry. 

Alaska Anchorage launching a team in 1979 finally gave Alaska a consistent opponent, which stabilized them. Despite the Nanooks being the more experienced program, the Seawolves had much better players and won all eight games between the two in that first year, scoring double-digit goals in five games. A rivalry was instantly born. In fact, Alaska Anchorage won its first twenty-one games against Alaska, though that was all within a three-year span, to give a sense of just how often the teams played. 

In that time, the programs moved up to D2 together, where both found success. D2 collapsed in 1984, pushing the programs up to D1 and into the now-defunct Grand West Hockey Conference. The GWHC collapsed just three years later in 1988, but its brief existence promoted both programs in the NCAA hockey world. In 1993, the Seawolves joined the WCHA as a member while the Nanooks partnered with the CCHA as an affiliate. The Nanooks joined the Seawolves in the WCHA twenty years later in 2013. 

Crisis struck again for both during the pandemic. The WCHA announced its disbandment in 2019, leaving both conferenceless yet again. Worse, a state budget crisis struck, forcing both programs to make cuts. Anchorage was much more severely impacted, however; Seawolves were forced to shut the team down from 2020-2022. There was even a proposal that the programs ought to combine, though the six-hour drive between the two posed somewhat of a barrier. Functionally, it would’ve meant putting the team on one campus, meaning the other would still lose the opportunity to see their team each week. $3 million in donations allowed Anchorage to resume play for the 2022-23 season. 

Since 2021, Alaska has been on the rise, even as an independent program, earning back-to-back winning seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24. This year, they won the first United Collegiate Hockey Cup, a de facto championship for the independent programs. Anchorage joined them as an independent when they returned.

Worried that the rivalry would diminish when the teams went to separate conferences in the 90s, the Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup was created. It’s awarded each year to whichever team earns the most points in the six games between the two. Fairbanks has won six of the last seven, but Anchorage leads the all-time series, 94-86-16. The documentary, “In the Trenches: 100 Years of Alaska Hockey,” produced by Emmy-nominated video producer Isabella Colello, captures the spirit of the rivalry. 

But as fierce of rivals as they are, there’s also a mutual cooperation between the two programs — the intrinsic knowledge that, without the other, they could not survive. In their early years, the many games that the teams played against each other kept the programs afloat. Between when the GWHC collapsed and Anchorage joined the WCHA, they did the same. The teams often coordinate travel to the lower 48 to save money. They are bonded by the remoteness of the state they share — as much partners as they are rivals.