The University of Minnesota-Duluth, the No. 2 seed for the NCAA hockey tournament that begins this weekend, is among the University of Maine’s non-conference opponents for the 2017-2018 season.
Scott Sandelin’s Bulldogs, 25-6-7 and the National Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament champions, invade Alfond Arena Oct. 27-28 for a two-game set.
The Black Bears also are scheduled to host Miami University (Ohio) of the NCHC on Oct. 20 and 21 and visit Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Oct. 13-14) and Quinnipiac (Dec. 8-9) of the ECAC.
The Black Bears (11-21-4) finished 11th in Hockey East this season at 5-15-2, visit Providence, Rhode Island, for a game with Brown University on Dec. 30 and their other non-league game features either RPI or Clarkson on Nov. 25, the second day of the Friendship Four tournament in Northern Ireland. All are ECAC schools.
UMaine plays Providence College in a Hockey East game on the first day of the Friendship Four.
The Black Bears play 24 Hockey East games instead of 22 because Notre Dame is leaving the league to join the Big Ten. That leaves the league with 11 teams.
Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna said there is nothing to report in terms of Hockey East potentially adding a 12th team.
Each Hockey East team will play six conference opponents twice and four teams three times apiece. The schedule is set up on a two-year rotation so teams play the same four opponents three times.
For example, UMaine’s extra games for 2017-2018 are against New Hampshire, Boston College, Boston University and Massachusetts. UMaine has the extra home game against New Hampshire and Boston University and plays twice on the road against Boston College and UMass.
The home-game arrangement is reversed for 2018-2019.
Bertagna and Hockey East director of communications Brian Smith said an algorithm was designed by Tim Danehy of collegehockeystats.net based on the 2015-2016 Hockey East standings to ensure the schedule is equitable.
“Nobody will play the top four teams or the bottom four teams three times,” explained Bertagna.
He anticipates the league tournament format will include all the teams with the top five finishers receiving first-round byes. The best-of-three, first-round series winners fill out the quarterfinal field.
The league’s coaches favored playing 24 league games rather than 20.
“It is difficult to schedule non-conference games,” said UMaine coach Red Gendron, who likes next season’s schedule. “Our fans want to see Hockey East opponents and getting a couple more Hockey East home games is a positive.”
Gendron said UMaine will play at least one game at Portland’s Cross Insurance Arena next season but the opponent has not been determined.
Minnesota-Duluth has qualified for the NCAA tournament three consecutive seasons and four times in the last six years.
Miami went 9-20-7 this season including a 3-3 tie and 5-0 win over UMaine in Ohio. UMaine swept RPI (8-28-1) in Orono to open the season (5-1, 4-2) and split overtime games with visiting Quinnipiac (23-15-2) the following weekend, winning 4-3 and losing 3-2. UMaine beat Brown (4-25-2) 5-1 in Portland.
Clarkson was 18-16-5 this season.
UMaine opens the season Oct. 6-7 by hosting Connecticut in a two-game Hockey East series.