Q&A with UND defenseman Chris Jandric

Oct. 21—UND defenseman Chris Jandric spent three seasons with Alaska (Fairbanks).

He played for two years, but last season, Alaska did not play because of the coronavirus pandemic. Jandric transferred to UND in the offseason and answered some questions this week with the Herald.

Q. In the summer of 2020, your brother, Steven, transferred from Alaska (Fairbanks) to Denver. You ended up sitting out the 2020-21 season as Alaska did not play. Why transfer in 2021 instead of 2020?

A. I couldn't play right away (2020). I would have had to sit out. So I tried to do the grad transfer thing. We had two seniors that did transfer (in 2020), because they were able to. They graduated early. That's something I wanted to do. That's what they did and I thought that was a cool way. So, I tried to graduate, then go from there.

Q. Did you graduate from Alaska then?

A. Yes, I graduated in three years.

Q. What's your degree in?

A. General business and administration.

Q. How did you manage to graduate in three years? Was it a heavy classload?

A. My last year, I took 22 credits each semester, eight or nine classes each semester. It kind of worked out that we weren't playing, so I could focus a good amount of time on school with that many classes.

Q. Were you living in Fairbanks last season or did you do it all remotely?

A. I lived there for the entire season. I was in class for half and online for the other half.

Q. What was it like being there with no hockey?

A. It was definitely different. It was nice traveling from there, because you don't see the sun too much in the winter time. It was a little bit of a mental game for a lot of us, just to see how self-disciplined we were, taking practices and workouts seriously.

Q. Did you work out at the school?

A. Yes, the school had a gym there. We were able to use that. Then, we were practicing every second day or three times a week.

Q. How did you end up at Fairbanks when you were originally recruited?

A. Dallas Ferguson was the coach there. We really liked him. That's who brought us up there. We didn't know much about college hockey. We committed the second weekend of playing juniors. We just thought Alaska was a cool spot.

Q. Did you and your brother commit together?

A. Yes, it was early October (2016), right after the Chilliwack Showcase.

Q. When you both left Fairbanks, did you consider transferring to the same spot together?

A. Yeah, that was definitely something we considered. We try to look out for each other, try to make it easier on our parents. It would be cool to play with him all the time.

Q. He's now at Merrimack and you're in Grand Forks. Do you guys keep in close contact?

A. Yeah, we keep in touch quite a bit. I try to watch most of his games. They're usually on around 3ish Saturdays. I'll nap, then try to watch the first two periods, then focus in for my game.

Q. How many teams were recruiting you when you were in the transfer portal?

A. There was a decent number of teams. I was focusing on the NCHC, narrowing it down to a few teams there. I thought with these guys here, the culture, the history and everything, this is something I couldn't pass up.

Q. What has your time been like so far at UND?

A. It's been awesome. Having fans back in the rink and playing at The Ralph, it's a pretty cool experience that not many people can have. I think it's awesome.

Q. What's your favorite movie?

A. I'd say Stepbrothers. Comedies.

Q. What's your favorite TV show?

A. I haven't had cable in forever. I'd say The Office.

Q. What's your favorite foods?

A. Lasagna and ice cream.

Q. What's your favorite restaurant?

A. There's a group of us that go to Olive Garden on Thursdays. We're doing a little traditional meal there, getting some breadsticks and soup in us.

Q. Do you read a lot?

A. My mom's a librarian, but I don't read that much.

Q. What's your favorite type of music or artist?

A. I like country, Luke Combs. That was super cool with him coming here.

Q. If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?

A. I'd say Justin Bieber, Connor McDavid and Luke Combs.