The Big Ten released its official 2014-15 Big Ten conference hockey schedule on Thursday, featuring 20-game slates for each of the league's six member schools. Wisconsin's first league series of 2014-15 will come Dec. 5-6, when it hosts Penn State at the Kohl Center.
The Badgers will then skate in an exhibition against the U.S. Under-18 Team, have two bye weeks and non-conference series against Michigan Tech and Boston University, before returning to conference play for the remainder of the schedule.
The main conference stretch begins either Thursday, Jan. 15 or Friday, Jan. 16 with a two-game series at defending regular-season champion Minnesota. That series is also the first of five conference series that currently include flex dates. Final dates for those five series will be announced at a later date.
Wisconsin is home for its first two-game Big Ten series of 2015 between Friday and Sunday, Jan. 23-25 against Michigan, before Minnesota's Kohl Center appearance between Thursday and Saturday, Jan. 29-31.
Two-game series at Penn State (Feb. 6-7) and Ohio State (Feb. 13-15) help sandwich UW's lone February home series against Michigan State on Feb. 20-21. The Badgers close out the month with a trip to Michigan (Feb. 27-March 1), then open March with a visit to Michigan State (March 6-7). Wisconsin will then close out the regular season at home against Ohio State on March 13-14.
Wisconsin previously announced its nonconference slate, which includes home series against longtime rivals North Dakota and Michigan Tech, as well as series against Boston University and defending WCHA regular-season champion Ferris State. The Badgers open the 2014-15 campaign at the Kendall Hockey Classic in Anchorage, Alaska, with games against Alaska (Oct. 10) and Alaska Anchorage (Oct. 11).
The Big Ten schedule concludes with the 2015 Big Ten tournament, to be held March 19-21, 2015, at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena.
