Somehow, we knew you'd be here.

Facing off against their nemeses in the national championship game for the 3^rd consecutive year, a 3^rd-period rally by the Grand Canyon University Roller team fell short in a 6-3 loss to Lindenwood University in the championship game of the 2026 National Collegiate Roller Hockey Premier Division 1 Championships in Springfield, Missouri. The Lopes – who earned the trip to Missouri after dominating the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League Tournament for the third straight season – finished 2-4 at nationals, participating in the new "Premier Division 1" category for the first time

Game 1 (Wednesday): GCU 8, Arizona State 3

Fresh off the road, the Lopes showed they didn't need much time to get acclimated to the new digs, since it was the first time that Brightspeed Ice Park (or Springfield) hosted the tournament. The Lopes got right to it, bombarding the Sun Devils with four unanswered goals in the first eight minutes of play. Josh Little and Zach Hoffman were the main contributors in the flurry, with Little scoring the first and fourth goals, and Hoffman assisting on the first three scores, including goals from Lopes' seniors Warren Jelinek and Brydon Frisk. While the Sun Devils scored before the end of the period, that was the closest they'd get to GCU the rest of the night as Cole Taylor and Tyler Larson each found the net within the first three minutes of the second period to put the game out of reach. Hoffman earned his 4^th assist during the 2^nd-period rally, then scored his first goal of the tournament with four minutes left in the match, with Ruben Gonzalez finishing off the scoring with two minutes left. The Lopes scored on nearly a quarter of their 33 shots, limiting ASU to just 16 shots of their own.

Game 2 (Thursday): Lindenwood 5, GCU 1

As dominant as the Lopes were in Game 1, they were dominated just as badly Thursday morning. It was one of the few times in any postseason game over the Lopes' four-year history that they never could find a rhythm. The Lions jumped on them from puck drop on, outshooting GCU, 30-8, for the game, and never allowing the Lopes to get more than three shots on goal in any frame. With that said, though, Lopes' goalie Michal Nabozny did a brilliant job of keeping the Lopes close in the first two periods, swatting away 21 of LU's 23 shots. The Lions scored just once in each of the first two periods – both courtesy of Anthony Lazzaroni – but took only a 2-1 edge into the 2^nd intermission due to Hoffman's goal 30 seconds before the buzzer. The game stayed a one-goal difference until the Lions struck with a pair of goals in a 19-second span midway through the final period, and the Lopes had no answer, thanks to five GCU penalties in the game's last five minutes. Nabozny finished with 25 saves.

Game 3 (Thursday): Arizona State 3, GCU 1

The hangover of Thursday morning stuck around hours later for the Lopes – even if their offense controlled the puck most of this night. The Lopes outshot ASU in every period - increasing their number of shots in each frame – but a lack of accuracy and too many penalties doomed the effort. Fitting, then, that the Lopes' lone goal was a shorthanded one by Frisk near the end of the first period. Once again, Nabozny was stellar in goal, but the lone riddle he couldn't solve was ASU's Jordan Nahoi-Baricar, who scored all three Sun Devils' goals, including one to put it out of reach with less than a minute left. Nabozny had 19 saves, but was outshone by ASU netminder Guido Pacheco's 31 saves – 15 of them coming in the Lopes' frantic comeback attempt in the final period.

Game 4 (Friday): Lindenwood 6, GCU 3

The Lopes had nearly a full 24 hours to rest and prepare for revenge against the Lions, and it might've worked – if not for a disastrous 2^nd period. GCU matched Lindenwood's intensity from the outset, and by the end of the first 12 minutes, the score was tied (2-2), and the number of shots and penalties on each side were nearly even. A power-play goal from Little gave GCU a 1-0 lead, then after giving up a Lions' power-play score, took the lead back on Kawena Lee 's first score of the tournament with three minutes left. The Lions took the momentum into the 1^st intermission after tying the score on another power-play goal and used that edge to blow it open with three straight scores in the first six minutes of the second frame. The Lopes never recovered, managing one more Little power-play goal midway through the 3^rd but getting no closer.

Semifinals (Saturday): GCU 4, Arizona State 2

The Friday night loss sent the Lions to Saturday night's championship game, and forced the already-weary Lopes to play an extra game Saturday morning to get there. However, it also gave the Lopes a chance to choose "quality over quantity" in shot selection this time around, and they took it. 53 seconds was all it took the Lopes' tonesetter throughout the tournament – Little – to give the Lopes the edge. ASU neutralized it five minutes later on a power-play goal by Nahoi-Baricar, but the Lopes took charge with a three-goal 2^nd frame – thanks to Taylor, Larson and Gonzalez, whose goal in the final 11 seconds seemed to suck the energy out of ASU, who managed just five unsuccessful shots the rest of the way.

Championship Game (Saturday): Lindenwood 6, GCU 3

The chance to win their 2^nd national title in three years was now in front of them, but some eerie déjà vu killed the Lopes' hopes. Like the night before, an evenly played 1-1 tie after one period became a distant memory after the first half of the 2^nd period when three straight Lions' goals over a seven-minute stretch put GCU on the ropes. Frisk scored with 90 seconds left in the 2^nd to keep GCU in range, and a power-play goal from Little (his team-leading 6^th goal of the tournament) in the first 80 seconds of the final stanza increased the Lopes' hopes. GCU then mounted a furious assault with 13 more shots in the period – but all for naught. The Lions made the most of their six shots in the final 12 minutes, scoring an insurance goal with seven minutes left, then flipping in an empty-netter to seal LU's 14^th national title overall in the final seconds.

Hoffman's whopping nine assists (and three goals) were more than enough to earn him a spot on the NCHRA All-Tournament 1^st Team, with Nabozny (109 saves in playing all 216 minutes of the tournament in goal) and Little nabbing spots on the 2^nd Team for the Lopes (22-7 overall, 13-2 WCRHL).