Sometimes it's a tap on the shin pads before a faceoff. Other times it's a post-game meetup in the bowels of the arena. When the Pioneers men's hockey team hosts Alaska-Fairbanks for the first time since 1994, the members of the coaching staffs will symbolize the size of the hockey community and tight-knit relationships it fosters.

On Oct. 19-20, Denver assistant coaches Dallas Ferguson and Tavis MacMillan, former players and coaches with the Nanooks, will stand on the bench opposite their alma mater for the first time in their careers. Additionally, Pioneers former Director of Hockey Operations Joe Howe will return to Magness Arena as an assistant with UAF and Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach David Carle will coach against a team from his home state. For two teams separated by more than 3,000 miles, their closeness belies their proximity.

"The whole hockey world is relationships," MacMillan said. "That's how you find jobs, that's how you get jobs. It's networking, it's people skills, it's who you connect with and the relationships you build around it."

MacMillan played four years at Alaska-Fairbanks from 1990-1994 before returning to the Nanooks as an assistant coach in 1996. In 2004, he accepted the head coaching job at UAF and asked his former teammate, Ferguson, to become his assistant. The two had played together from 1992-1994 and MacMillan was confident his ex-roommate was right for the job.

After spending three seasons on staff together, MacMillan became a full-time NHL scout with the Atlanta Thrashers and Ferguson was tabbed head coach of the Nanooks in 2008. At the same time, Carle was being forced into retirement due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition. MacMillan had watched the Anchorage, Alaska native play at Shattuck-St. Mary's School in Minnesota prior to the diagnosis and had him on the Thrashers draft list. The duo wouldn't meet on the stage at the 2008 NHL Draft, instead they would reconnect at Magness Arena years later.

In 2015, MacMillan joined Carle as an assistant at Denver. When Carle was named head coach on May 25, he named Ferguson, who had served nine seasons as the of head coach of the Nanooks and one season as the head coach of the Calgary Hitmen (Western Hockey League), an assistant with MacMillan. Howe left for UAF only 48 days later. In four years, the Pioneers had established four ties to Alaska and three to the Nanooks.

As Denver faces the UAF for the first time in since Carle, MacMillan and Ferguson joined the Pioneers and Howe joined the Nanooks, the series has generated more attention than usually reserved for a non-conference matchup in October. The size of the hockey world hasn't changed. It's just more clear than usual.

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