Season-opening home-and-home series with intrastate rivals Bemidji State University and the University of Minnesota as well as 20 clashes against 2015 NCAA Tournament participants are among the highlights of the 2015-16 University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey schedule.
Five days after taking on visiting Lakehead University in an exhibition outing, the Bulldogs will launch their 72nd season of intercollegiate competition on Oct. 9 by hosting Bemidji State before paying a visit to the Sanford Center in Bemidji, Minn., one night later. The following week (Oct. 16), UMD and Minnesota are slated to collide for the 229th time in Minneapolis and then at AMSOIL Arena the next evening. The Bulldogs went 4-1-0 against the Gophers this past season and ousted them in the opening round of the NCAA Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H. last month. Following non-conference series at the University of Notre Dame (Oct. 23-24) and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell (Oct. 30-31 in Duluth), UMD will open National Collegiate Hockey Conference play with a pair of road bouts versus the University of Nebraska-Omaha on the first weekend of November. During the course of the 2015-16 regular season, the Bulldogs will also play host to the University of Denver (Nov. 13-14), Western Michigan University (Dec. 4-5), the University of North Dakota (Dec. 11-12), St. Cloud State University (Jan. 15-16), Colorado College (Feb. 5-6) and Miami University (March 4-5) as part of their 16-game home slate. UMD faces Colorado College, Denver, Miami, North Dakota, and St. Cloud State four times each next season and the other two remaining NCHC clubs (Nebraska Omaha and Western Michigan) just twice. In addition, on Jan. 29-30, UMD and Northern Michigan University will meet for the first time in Marquette, Mich., since Jan. 27, 2007. The two former Western Collegiate Hockey Associations colleagues' last two-game series on the Wildcats' home ice was on Nov. 23-24, 2002.
Denver, Miami, Minnesota, North Dakota, Omaha, and St. Cloud State all qualified for the NCAA Tournament this past spring.
Worth Noting: The Bulldogs, whose strength of schedule ranked first among all NCAA I schools in the country (for the second straight year), had the nation's fifth best average home attendance (a school-record 6,411 per game) in 2014-15 ... For the first time since 1960-61, UMD and Michigan Tech University will not meet during the regular season ... The Bulldogs and the U.S. National Under-18 Team will christen in the New Year by squaring off in a Jan. 2 exhibition matchup at AMSOIL Arena ... UMD, which eclipsed the 20-win mark for the fifth time in the last seven seasons this winter (21-16-3 overall), checked in at No. 6 in the final 2014-15 USCHO.com Poll.
2015-16 UMD Hockey Schedule
