Less than 10 minutes after their final home game of the 2025-26 season, the Oregon club hockey players were sliding along the ice, taking pictures with friends and family and reflecting on the season that most recently brought them 9-3 and 6-3 wins over Oakland University.
Oregon (13–12) returned from a two-week break, looking to recover from a sweep at North Carolina State University. The Ducks came into the rematch with Oakland University (3-28–2) with strong chances of achieving that goal after sweeping the Golden Grizzlies earlier in their arduous season.
Oregon opened both games with each of its four seniors — Jackson Henningsgard, Ryan Green, Jacob Saenger and Hunter Voyles — on the ice with its senior night ceremony before game two.
“They’ve been great all year, and to have two wins at home — and two big wins at that — to get to the double digit mark (against Division I opponents) for the first time in program history, it’s great,” Oregon head coach Jack Hyman said. “I’m happy for them, happy for the guys, and, you know, one more weekend on the road to finally close it out.”
Neither team managed any threatening chances in a back-and-forth start to the period, but the Ducks established a physical advantage from that first shift.
Sophomore Griffin Browne found the opening goal for the Ducks 7:19 into the game, when a deflection out of the corner landed between the circles with a lane to beat Oakland goalie Ethan Jordan to the far side. Saenger won the puck battle in the corner to record his first point of the season in his season debut, after playing 46 games for the Ducks across the past three seasons.
Freshman Jackson Ebott quickly extended the lead 1:18 later, deflecting sophomore Axel Wyatt’s shot from the point with his leg to beat Jordan, who never saw the shot.
While the two goals sparked the Ducks’ offense, Oakland weathered the storm for the remainder of the first period, finishing with six shots on goal to Oregon’s 19.
Oregon’s first line of Ebbott, Henningsgard and Inde Abresch, which has dominated in the second half of its season, broke through for two goals early in the second period to put the Ducks ahead 4-0.
“They started playing together in the second or third week of the season, and (their chemistry) only just continued to get better and better, so, Jackson (Ebbott) and Inde have been great additions as freshmen, and I know Henningsgard really likes playing with them,” Hyman said.
Oakland senior Lance Markowitz scored the Golden Grizzlies’ first goal 6:18 into the second period when a high-arcing dump-in from the neutral zone fooled Oregon goalie George Serbin.
Soon after Markowitz’s goal, Oakland senior Connor Carroll was forced to take over for Jordan when the Golden Grizzlies’ starter went down with an injury. Henningsgard put a near-impossible shot to stop on the cold goaltender at 12:52, winning an offensive-zone faceoff through his opponent’s legs, faking to his forehand and tucking the puck behind a falling Carroll.
Ebbott extended the Ducks’ lead with a wraparound, and sophomore Alex Ulyanov sent Oakland to the second intermission trailing 7-1, burying a goalline pass from freshman Bobby Anselmo.
Oakland pushed back early in the third period with shorthanded goals by junior James Talmers and Markowitz, but Anselmo pushed Oregon’s lead back to five goals 3:45 into the period.
Oregon freshman Zachary Orwig finished a two-on-one with sophomore Dylan Chapman for the 9-3 final score.
Facing a season sweep, Oakland matched up with Oregon significantly better early in game two. Golden Grizzlies defenseman Keith Pilut capitalized on the strong start 9:42 into the game with a shot from the point, which Serbin lost sight of through a screen.
Green, who also joined the Ducks midway through the season, provided Oregon’s first goal on senior night, deflecting in a pass along the ice from defenseman Austin Kluksdahl to tie the game 16:12 into the first period.
“(Green and Saenger) came back, and they knew they would be role guys after a conversation with them, and it didn’t matter what I asked of them — they were more than willing to play any role,” Hyman said.
The tie held into the first intermission, but Henningsgard gave Oregon its first lead 4:03 into the second period when Oakland lost track of him at the point and left too much space for him to beat Carroll to the short side. Sophomore Arthur Corbin extended the Ducks’ lead within a minute by taking a two-one-one opportunity himself.
Oakland withstood Oregon’s surge of momentum when senior Sebastian Stukel poke-checked the puck away from Oregon defenseman Carson Streich attempting to exit the zone, and freshman Joe Aiello quickly fired the loose puck past Serbin.
Abresch recovered the Ducks’ two-goal lead 9:33 into the period, finishing a cross-ice pass from freshman Toby Kerr on the power play. Anselmo cued a Golden Grizzlies timeout with a wide-open tap-in in front of the net 26 seconds later.
Oakland head coach Nick Mammel couldn’t have prepared his team for Henningsgard’s second goal of the game 6:16 into the period. Henningsgard received a pass from defenseman Colin Gabriel in the left circle, waited as an Oakland defender slid by, and finished with a wrist shot into the top left corner to put Oregon ahead 6-2.
“Before Ryan and Jacob came in January, (Henningsgard) was the only senior forward on the team, and just to be able to sort of take the reins and help the many, many freshmen that we have, especially two of his linemates, and lead by example, has been huge,” Hyman said. “You’ve got to score to win, and if there’s one thing Jackson does well, it’s score,”
Oakland senior Stefano Mini set up another third-period push less than a minute in, chipping in a loose puck in Oregon’s goal crease. While the Ducks were unable to find the third period goals from game one, Oregon dominated possession and held the 6-3 final score.
“I think our forwards can control the game from down low, and that’s where a lot of our goals generated or with speed through the neutral zone, so just making the right decisions with the puck ultimately led us to finally open up the game in the second period, and then we were able to close it out in the third,” Hyman said.
Oregon, already in possession of its Division I win record with ten, will finish the season with a chance for two more on the road against San Diego State University on Feb. 20 and 21.