The Minnesota Wild won't have to wait long to renew the budding rivalry with the Colorado Avalanche.
Minnesota opens the 2014-15 regular season at home against Colorado on Oct. 9. The NHL revealed the full schedule on Sunday.
The opener will be one of five games against the Avalanche, whom the Wild beat in seven games in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs this past season. Colorado, which won the Central Division last year, will play three games in Minnesota and host the Wild twice this season.
The opener is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. CST start on Oct. 9. The rivalry continues with a home-and-home series, with Minnesota traveling to Colorado for the season's second game on Oct. 11 for a 9 p.m. start.
Minnesota plays 29 games within the division, earning the home-heavy split of five games with Winnipeg and going on the road for three of five games against Chicago, Dallas and Nashville. The Wild and St. Louis Blues will evenly split four contests.
The Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings come to Minnesota on Nov. 26 and March 28. The Eastern Conference champion New York Rangers play in Minnesota on April 2. The regular season ends on April 11 on the road at St. Louis.
A season-long five game homestand runs from March 27 to April 6 with Calgary, Los Angeles, New York, Detroit and Winnipeg in Minnesota. The season ends with three games on the road. The season-long road trip is four games from Jan. 20 to Feb. 1 with the Wild on the road at Detroit, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, but the league's all-star game splits the road trip.
The all-star game, skipped this past season because of the Olympics, is scheduled for Jan. 25 in Columbus.
Minnesota won't travel as much this season, per webflyer.com. The Wild are traveling an estimated 42,758 miles next season, compared to 44,443 miles last season. Of the 82 games, only 10 begin at 8 p.m. or later, locally.
The home schedule includes 19 weekend games, and Minnesota has 13 sets of back-to-back games.
The broadcast schedule for FOX Sports North will be announced at a later date.
The Wild have home-and-road games against Winnipeg, Pittsburgh and St. Louis in the preseason. The preseason begins on Sept. 22 at Winnipeg. The home preseason games are Sept. 27 against Winnipeg, Sept. 29 against Pittsburgh and the preseason ends Oct. 4 at home against St. Louis.
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