Men's Ice Hockey Perry Laskaris, CCHA

Future USCS Teammates Square Off In Sioux Falls

Two of the top goaltenders in the nation over the last two seasons will square off in Central Collegiate Hockey Assication (CCHA) play this weekend, when Minnesota State senior Alex Tracy and Augustana junior Josh Kotai skate to their respective creases on Friday night at Midco Arena in Sioux Falls, S.D. The two will soon be able to call each other teammates when they suit up for the United States Collegiate Selects — a first-of-its-kind collection of NCAA Men's Division I talent from across the country — in two short weeks at the 97th Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland.



"I'm stoked to see the roster fill out the way that it did," said Tracy, who was one of the initial invites to the team by way of earning AHCA All-America honors in 2024-25. "The excitement has only grown from finding out [he was invited] to now getting close to heading over there and competing." The league's reigning Player and Goaltender of the Year, he helped the Mavericks reclaim both the MacNaughton Cup and Mason Cup as regular season and conference playoff champions. 

Though they have only met a handful of times on the ice, Tracy has enjoyed his matchups with Kotai so far, including a pair of tightly contested conference games in Mankato last season. "He's a heck of a goalie," said Tracy. "He's an unreal competitor and it's going to be fun to compete against him this weekend, but also meet him and get to know him when we go over to Switzerland."

Kotai, who earned All-CCHA Second Team honors a season ago, was the third and final goaltender added to the USCS roster. "I'm excited that Alex [Tracy] is coming too, he's a great goalie," said Kotai. "Getting to compete against him through our league but also for the net is going to be super exciting. Getting to learn from him too, you know, he reads the game so well." 

Since the start of the 2024-25 season, Tracy and Kotai rank first and second nationally in goals-against average (1.55 and 1.95) and save percentage (.942 and .936) among active netminders with at least 25 games played. Over that span, no goalie has won more games (37), played more minutes (3412:46) or stopped more pucks (1426) than Tracy. Kotai ranks seventh in wins (25) and fifth in total saves (1279).

The trip to Europe will be a first for both netminders. "Playing in front of pro teams in a great arena, it's going to be such a cool experience," added Kotai. 

This weekend's series between the Mavericks and Vikings gets underway on Friday night at 7:07pm CT and concludes on Saturday night at 6:07pm CT, with both available to be seen on Midco Sports Plus. The contests mark the end of the first half for MInnesota State, while Augustana will close things out on December 19 and 20 against Omaha at home.

The USCS roster, which is comprised of 25 student-athletes from across all six NCCA conference will gather in Boston before heading to Davos to compete from December 26-31 at Eisstadion Davos. The collegians opens play against Team Canada on December 26 at 2:15pm ET/1:15pm CT.

Along with the Selects and Canadians, host HC Davos, HC Fribourg-Gotteron, Sparta Praha and IFK Helsinki will be taking part in the 2025 edition. All tournament games will be streamed for free on YouTube in the United State and on TSN in Canada. 

For more infomation on the Spengler Cup, visit www.spenglercup.ch.