The University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team released its full 2025-26 schedule Monday, the soon to be 82nd season in program history.

 

UMD will open the season with four non conference series, beginning with the University of Alaska Fairbanks on the road Oct. 3-4. UMD will drop the puck at AMSOIL Arena for the first time in 2025-26 on Oct. 10-11, its first-ever series against Augustana University before a home-and-home series against Bemidji State University on Oct. 17-18 that concludes at AMSOIL on Saturday, Oct, 18. The Bulldogs will tangle with the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on Oct. 24-25 to round out its first four games.

 

Grand Forks, ND is where the Bulldogs will open up National College Hockey Conference action against the University of North Dakota on Oct. 31-Nov. 1, and will head home to AMSOIL the following weekend to host St. Cloud State University on Nov. 7-8, the first of back-to-back NCHC homesteads for UMD. After a road series at Colorado College (Nov. 21-22), followed by a visit to 2025 National Champion Western Michigan University on Dec. 5-6, the Bulldogs return home for their final series of 2025 against Arizona State University on Dec. 12-13.

 

UMD drops the puck on the 2026  portion of the season by stepping outside of league play to host its first-ever two-game set against Lindenwood University on Jan. 9-10. The Bulldogs then hit the road to St. Cloud, Minn. to face the Huskies again on Jan. 16-17 before returning to Duluth to take on the national champs at AMSOIL on Jan. 23-24. A trip to Denver, Col. to face NCAA Final Four participant the University of Denver on Jan. 30-31 is followed by a home series against the Fighting Hawks on Feb. 6-7. The Bulldogs wrap up the regular season at home on Feb. 27-28 against CC.

 

In all, the Bulldogs will skate in 34 regular season games next winter and will face three opponents who made the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Of note, NCHC play will begin a week earlier next season due to the conference tournament moving to three weeks. For the NCHC Playoffs, only the top-8 will make it again in 2025-26 (no play-in game). Best-of-three quarterfinals will be held at top-4 seeds and run March 6-8, 2026 followed by two single-game semifinals on Saturday, March 14, 2026 at the two highest remaining seeds (teams re-seeded after quarterfinals). The championship game will be either Friday, March 20 or Saturday, March 21, 2026 – the actual date will be set by the league after its May meetings.