On Friday, Oct. 17, the schedule and details of DU’s upcoming hockey season were unveiled by the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). This announcement comes several weeks after the season’s postponement was announced earlier this year.
The NCHC will split up into two sections to help minimize travel and reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The conference’s eight teams were split up geographically. The East Division consists of Miami, Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan, while the West Division includes Colorado College, North Dakota, Omaha and DU.
The conference will utilize a “pod” system as a centralized location for both divisions. The season will kick off on Tuesday, Dec. 1 in Omaha, Neb., where the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Baxter Arena will host all eight NCHC teams. This deviates from the NCHC’s original hope of starting the season the weekend before Thanksgiving. Teams will play each of their divisional opponents six times and each cross-division opponent twice, with all cross-division games taking place in Baxter Arena.
Play in the Pod will consist of 10 games per team during the first three weeks of December, with games taking place throughout the week. Game schedules will be made with each school’s final exams in mind, limiting the teams’ competition schedule during a school’s scheduled final exam week.
The second part of the season will then take place from January to March, with all divisional rivals playing each other both at home and on the road. This gives hometown fans a potential chance to see their team, provided the conference and/or individual teams can come up with a safe solution to allow some spectators. Between both parts of the season, teams will play a total of 26 games.
Conference games, including all games in the Pod, will be available for fans to watch through a paid subscription service on NCHC.tv.
Complete schedules—including dates, times and bye weekends—as well as the NCHC’s COVID-19 testing plans will be unveiled in the coming weeks. Any decision regarding non-conference play will be made at a later date.
