Ice Hockey team

Fargo Force

Club · United States · USHL

«The Force»

415 Matches

244 wins

171 losses

1388–1159 Goals

+229 Difference

3.3 Scored per game

Form L L W W W W

Fargo sits on the North Dakota side of the Red River, a college and agricultural hub that had no permanent home for junior hockey until the Urban Plains Center went up on its northern edge. The Force was built to fill that building, granted a United States Hockey League franchise in early 2007 and taking the ice the following season — a fresh club rather than a continuation of the old Fargo-Moorhead Jets. The rink has since been renamed Scheels Arena, and it holds 5,000 for hockey.

Dean Blais ran the bench for the club's first six seasons, the coach who set the tone before anyone had won anything there. The silverware came later: a Clark Cup in 2017–18, beating the Youngstown Phantoms in four games, and a second in 2023–24 against the Dubuque Fighting Saints. That second title came inside a 50-10-2 season, a USHL wins record, under Brett Skinner, who was named the league's coach of the year for it. The club had reached the Clark Cup final four other times without winning it.

Ace Brandt founded and owned the Force until his death in October 2021; Matt Cullen has stayed on among the minority owners since. Players who came through Fargo have gone on to NHL rosters in some number — Nate Schmidt and Blake Lizotte among them — but the pipeline runs quietly, junior hockey's usual trade of a few seasons in black, grey and white before the draft takes them elsewhere.

Games against Sioux Falls and Sioux City carry the sharpest edge on the schedule, playoff series that have turned into the club's real rivalries without ever needing a name for them. Omaha counts too. Fargo enters this season defending its regular-season title as well as its league championship, with Skinner's group expected to contend for both again.

Latest results

Fixtures and results

11 Oct	USHL	Sioux Falls Stampede H	5:0	W
10 Oct	USHL	Sioux Falls Stampede A	3:2	W
3 Oct	USHL	Youngstown Phantoms A	4:0	W
3 Oct	USHL	Youngstown Phantoms A	6:4	W
27 Sep	USHL	Waterloo Black Hawks H	2:3	L
26 Sep	USHL	Waterloo Black Hawks H	2:3	L

Standing

USHL

Group stage · Western Conference

#	Team	M	W	L	Goals
1	Waterloo Black Hawks	6	5	1	22:14
2	Des Moines Buccaneers	8	5	3	28:21
3	Tri-City Storm	8	5	3	40:30
4	Fargo Force	8	5	3	24:16
5	Sioux Falls Stampede	9	5	4	31:28
6	Lincoln Stars	7	3	4	15:23
7	Sioux City Musketeers	8	3	5	28:27
8	Omaha Lancers	6	2	4	15:21