New Look, Some Familiar Faces: The Gophers have released their schedule for the new-look 2013-14 campaign. It includes the new Big Ten Conference matchups but also adds some traditional rivals that Minnesota did not want to stop playing. That includes Minnesota-Duluth, which will hit town on Thanksgiving weekend for what should be a great series.
Tournaments Galore Throughout the Store: The season will open with the Gophers hosting the 17th annual Ice Breaker Tournament October 11-12. Clarkson, Mercyhurst and New Hampshire will join Minnesota for the annual season-opening classic. “Next year will be the beginning of a new era for the Gopher hockey program, and we’re excited to open the season at Mariucci Arena with the Ice Breaker Tournament,” Minnesota head coach Don Lucia said. “It’s a great event for college hockey as a whole, and considering we haven’t seen these teams for a few years, I think it will be an exciting weekend for our program as well as our fans.”
The Mariucci Classic is back, too, after the first of the year. New this year is the all-Minnesota tournament, which will be played in late January and include the Gophers, UM-D, St. Cloud State and Minnesota State-Mankato. Bemidji State will jump into a tournament berth the following season.
Bring On Bucky: The Gophers will open their first Big Ten conference season with a Friday-Saturday set against Wisconsin at Mariucci Arena November 29-30. They’ll also play three games against the Badgers in Madison in early February.
Triple-Headers? Uh…no: The schedule appears to show some three-game series. A closer look, however, shows that those three-gamers are actually normal two-game sets, some of which will be Thursday-Friday and some Friday-Saturday. Which will be which will, I suspect, be up to the Big Ten Network.
Sweet Home St. Paul: After closing the season with four road games (at Ohio State and Michigan), the Gophers will hopefully be deeply involved in the playoffs – almost all of which will be on familiar turf: the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. That’s the site of the first Big Ten Conference tournament March 20-22 as well as the NCAA West Regionals the following weekend.
Here’s the whole package:
2013-14 Minnesota Golden Gophers Hockey Schedule(Home games in Bold)
Oct. 11 Friday Ice Breaker Tournament# Oct. 12 Saturday Ice Breaker Tournament# Oct. 18 Friday @ Bemidji State Oct. 19 Saturday @ Bemidji State Oct. 25 Friday Boston College Oct. 27 Sunday Boston College Nov. 8 Friday @ Notre Dame Nov. 9 Saturday @ Notre Dame Nov. 11 Friday Minnesota State Nov. 12 Saturday Minnesota State Nov. 22 Friday Minnesota-Duluth Nov. 23 Saturday Minnesota-Duluth Nov. 29 Friday Wisconsin* Nov. 30 Saturday Wisconsin* Dec. 6 Friday @ Michigan State* Dec. 7 Saturday @ Michigan State* Jan. 4 Friday Mariucci Classic Jan. 5 Saturday Mariucci Classic Jan. 12 Sunday @ Penn State* Jan. 13 Monday @ Penn State* Jan. 17 Friday Ohio State* Jan. 18 Saturday Ohio State* Jan. 24 Friday Minnesota Tournament (SCSU)! Jan. 25 Saturday Minnesota Tournament! Jan. 30 Thursday Michigan State*^ Jan. 31 Friday Michigan State* Feb. 1 Saturday Michigan State*^ Feb. 6 Thursday @ Wisconsin*^ Feb. 7 Friday @ Wisconsin* Feb. 8 Saturday @ Wisconsin*^ Feb. 13 Thursday Michigan*^ Feb. 14 Friday Michigan* Feb. 15 Saturday Michigan*^ Feb. 28 Friday Penn State* March 1 Saturday Penn State* March 7 Friday @ Ohio State* March 8 Saturday @ Ohio State* March 14 Friday @ Michigan* March 15 Saturday @ Michigan* March 20 Thursday Big Ten Quarterfinals% March 21 Friday Big Ten Semifinals% March 22 Saturday Big Ten Championship Game% March 28 Friday NCAA West Regional+ March 29 Saturday NCAA West Regional+ * Big Ten Contest ^ One of these three series will be played Thursday and Friday, the other two will be Friday and Saturday. # The Ice Breaker Tournament will be held at Mariucci Arena. ! The Minnesota Tournament will be held at Xcel Energy Center. % The 2014 Big Ten Tournament will be held at Xcel Energy Center. + The 2014 NCAA West Regional will be held at Xcel Energy Center. Dates and times are subject to change
