The No. 11 Colorado College Tigers are back and entering the Jackson Unger Era.
On Friday, Oct. 4, Tiger fans filled Ed Robson Arena for the first time this season. The Tigers upset the former No. 10 University of Massachusetts Amherst Minutemen, 2-0. With Jackson Unger ‘29 in net, the Tigers denied the Minutemen a single goal. Unger made 32 saves, logging his first collegiate shutout.
The following night, the Tigers struck again, roaring past the Minutemen with a decisive 6-1 victory. Unger recorded 22 saves, finishing the weekend with a .982 save percentage. In the three games after opening weekend, Unger has allowed only five goals.
Unger played in 10 games during the 2025-26 season and started in six. As franchise veteran Kaidan Mbereko ‘26 approached the end of his collegiate career, Unger began to rotate into goal. Unger finished the season with 184 saves and a .911 save percentage.
For head coach Kris Mayotte, Unger’s calmness in high-stakes moments has set the goaltender apart and made him the easy choice to start for the Tigers this year.
“[Unger] picked up right where he left off [last year],” Mayotte said. “His ability, how he finished last year, the confidence that we had in him, the confidence his teammates had in him, you know, I think made it easy for him to be our guy to start the season against UMass.”
Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, Unger first played goaltender at the age of eight. After earning a shutout in his first game in net, the position stuck.
In 2021, Unger made his debut with the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Moose Jaw Warriors. Two years later, Unger led the WHL in wins, playing in 54 games and finishing with a 35-15-0 record. He totaled 3,133:01 minutes and helped lead the Saskatchewan juniors to their first-ever Ed Chynoweth Cup. Unger was traded to the Lethbridge Hurricanes in 2024, and played in 33 games with the Hurricanes before ending his junior career.
With championship experience, both Mayotte and assistant coach John Lidgett were drawn to Unger’s ability to play in crucial moments.
“Jackson’s winning pedigree as a junior hockey player in Moose Jaw and Lethbridge sets him apart from the majority of his peers. He has been in huge moments prior to arriving at CC,” Lidgett said in an email to The Catalyst.
After the NCAA Division I Council decided in November 2024 to allow players from the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), including WHL athletes, to play in NCAA hockey, the Tigers’ staff was confident Unger’s experience and reputation were the right fit for the program.
As CC began to show interest in Unger, the Calgary native’s interest was piqued by the facilities and opportunity to play in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), where teams have won eight of the past 10 national championships. Unger praised the staff’s transparency and engagement throughout his recruitment process.
“I wanted to be in a program that would treat their players right and had a good culture and strong reputation,” Unger said.
Unger signed with the Tigers in May 2025.
With nine games under his belt in his rookie season with the Tigers, Unger settled into a routine and adapted to college hockey. Over the summer, he hit the ice four days a week and was in the gym daily. He knew the position was still up for grabs.
This fall, the Tigers brought in Michal Pradel ‘30, a third-round NHL draft pick from Dolny Kubin, Slovakia. Pradel, who is reportedly out with an injury, has played on the international stage and represented Slovakia in the 2026 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.
“It’s gonna take a lot of work to fill this role and keep it after it’s gained,” said Unger. “Nothing earned is kept. You have to earn it all over again every time… I mean it’s just one weekend.”
Beyond his athleticism and ability to be in the right place at the right time, Unger, Mayotte and Lidgett all agree that his temperament and mentality set him apart from other goaltenders in collegiate hockey.
“Jackson has a calmness and maturity to him that is infectious and gives our team a bunch of [confidence],” said Lidgett. He later shared in his email to The Catalyst that Unger’s maturity and presence stand out and that Unger “takes in information incredibly well.”
His coaches aren’t the only ones who have noticed Unger’s ability to remain collected: it settles into their entire team.
“His ability to minimize movement and be efficient is something that I think bleeds through your team, bleeds through your bench and really gives a calmness to everybody,” said Mayotte.
“He’s a heck of a goalie; making it look easy is really hard,” Mayotte added.
For Unger, the pressure is part of the game. He focuses on not showing too much emotion and keeping a level head throughout the game. He prepares for each game with a ritual of a pregame nap, chicken and pasta dinner, hand-eye coordination exercises and a game of Sewer Ball.
“It’s kind of a love-hate relationship with the pressure. Sometimes it’s good to have that, and you feel the nerves and excitement, but then, at the same time, it can be a lot to handle,” said Unger. “It’s your own little world back there. It’s almost like a different sport.”
The Tigers still have 30 regular-season games ahead of them, but with a promising start, the Unger Era has just begun.
The Tigers return to Ed Robson Arena on Friday, Oct. 23, for the Battle of the Pikes Peak Trophy against the U.S. Air Force Academy.