In its inaugural season, the Big Ten has partnered with the Hockey East conference to create a challenge similar to that basketball teams play in.
Eleven different institutions will participate in 13 designated games to be played between Oct. 18-27, with six games in Hockey East arenas on the first weekend, followed by six games in Big Ten arenas and a single game on neutral ice on the second weekend.
Minnesota's will be part of the inaugural Challenge playing against against Boston College on Oct.25 and Oct. 27 at Mariucci Arena.
"The Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge will offer a tremendous opportunity to build a relationship between our two conferences and to promote the strong traditions of college hockey on a national level," said Big Ten associate commissioner Jennifer Heppel.
"The college hockey landscape is going through a major change this season and each conference needs to look beyond its familiar boundaries," said Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna. "We have great respect for the hockey playing institutions in the Big Ten and we hope to develop this concept to allow all of our programs to participate in this competition in future years."
A win will count for two points, a draw for one and winning on the road will get an extra bonus point. At the end of the Challenge, the conference with the most points in the 13 games will be presented the Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge Cup. Should each conference record the same number of points, the results of the Penn State-Vermont game, played on neutral ice, will serve as the tie-breaker.
