UConn Men’s Hockey Releases 2018-19 Schedule

UConn men’s hockey will take the ice for the first time in less than three months after a very successful 2017-18 season and lots of offseason changes. On Thursday, the Huskies released the slate of opponents for the new campaign.

Hockey East’s schedule changed, eliminating the first round of the conference tournament. This allowed the conference slate to expand by one week, eliminating the need for midweek conference games. UConn does play two Hockey East home games on Thursday against Boston College (Dec. 6) and Northeastern (Feb. 7), but that is because of conflicts with the XL Center’s primary tenant, the American Hockey League’s Hartford Wolf Pack.

UMass will also play host the Huskies on a Thursday (Feb. 21) in what would be an otherwise quiet weekend.

The longer regular season has made the Huskies’ schedule much less congested, as they will only take the ice five times outside of the typical weekend, three of which are at home.

RPI completes a home-and-home series at the XL Center on Jan. 16 after the Huskies head to Troy, New York on Oct. 20, while Brown will also head to Hartford on Nov. 13.

The remaining three are in-state battles, including when UConn heads to Quinnipiac (Oct. 16) and Sacred Heart (Jan. 29) comes to the XL Center. The Huskies will also travel to Yale for a New Year’s Eve matinee.

UConn could face the Bulldogs in the second day of the Friendship Four in Belfast as well. In a conference game, the Huskies take on Boston University in the first day of the event on Nov. 23 and will play whoever matches their result between Yale and Union the following day.

The Huskies will also be participating in the Ice Vegas Invitational from Jan. 4-5 along with Air Force, St. Lawrence and Western Michigan.

Last year, UConn played five Saturday afternoon games after playing the previous evening and there will be only two of those this year, when Maine comes to town for a weekend series on Oct. 26-27 in addition to a Saturday matinee with Providence (March 2) after Vermont visits the evening before.

However, the home and road split is not unlike the 2017-18 season. UConn opens with four straight road games and the Maine series will serve as the home opener. The Huskies play merely five games at home before the New Year and have 17 of their first 25 games take place away from the XL Center.

After they head to Durham to take on New Hampshire (Jan. 26), UConn will venture away from Hartford just twice, with eight of its final 10 games in the friendly confines.

Hockey East will keep the same schedule formula as last year, with 24 conference games. UConn will play Boston College, Boston University, UMass and Vermont three times and each of the other six Hockey East teams twice.