Next Years Tentative Schedule

It's never too early to start thinking about next season so we might as well start with who Wisconsin is going to be playing. With 12 teams in the current WCHA, the league has adopted these pods for scheduling purposes. Next year in league play the Badgers will play every team one series, and they will play two series with North Dakota, Minnesota, and St. Cloud State, obviously one on the road and one at the Kohl Center.

Since this is only the second season of this format, I'm not 100% sure how the rest of the league schedule will work. I'm assuming most likely if UW played a team at home like Bemidji State, they will play them on the road next year. And a team like Denver that Wisconsin traveled to this season will come to the Kohl. The Badgers scheduling pod last year included Michigan Tech and Minnesota-Duluth, so the assumption would be playing one of them at home, and the other on the road.

According to Andy Baggot Wisconsin's non conference schedule next season includes (all home) series with Northern Michigan, RIT, and Mercyhurst. They will kick off the season with Northern Michigan, Mercyhurst will be in town over Thanksgiving (no more college hockey showcase), and the Badgers will get RIT over winter break.

UPDATE-I've been told this is the current tentative schedule for next season.

Oct. 7-8 – vs. Northern Michigan
Oct. 14-15 @ Michigan Tech
Oct. 21-22 – vs. North Dakota
Oct. 28-29 – vs. Nebraska Omaha
Nov. 4-5 – @ St. Cloud State
Nov. 11-12 – vs. Minnesota
Nov. 18-19 – @ Colorado College
Nov. 25-26 – vs. Mercyhurst
Dec. 2-3 – vs. RIT
Dec. 9-10 – vs. Minnesota-Duluth
Jan. 13-14 – @ Minnesota State
Jan. 20-21 – vs. Anchorage
Jan. 27-28 – @ North Dakota
Feb. 3-4 – vs. St. Cloud State
Feb. 17-18 – vs. Denver
Feb. 24-25 – @ Bemidji State
March 2-3 – @ Minnesota

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The schedule is out!!!

Here is the story and schedule from uwbadgers.com. If you are in a hurry:

10/08 – Icebreaker vs Boston, 10/10 against Notre Dame or Holy Cross
10/15 & 17 – Alabama Huntsville
10/22-23 - @ Denver
10/29-30 – Michigan Tech
11/05-06 - @ minnesota
11/12-13 – North Dakota
11/19-20 – Duluth
11/26-27 – College Hockey Showcase
12/03-04 – @ UAA
12/10-11 – Bemidji
12/17-18 – Open
12-30 – 31 – UMASS
01/07-08 – Canisius
01/14-15 - @ Duluth (first full series at the new DECC)
01/21-22 - Mankato
01/28-29 – @ Tech
02/04-05 – Open
2/11-12 - @ Nebraska-Omaha
2/18-19 – minnesota
2/25-26 – @ St Cloud
3/04-05 – CC
3/11-13 - WCHA Playoffs
3/17-19 - WCHA Final Five
3/25-27 - NCAA Regionals
4/07 & 09 - Frozen Four @ the X

Special note that the first two weekends of the season (Icebreaker and home opener) are friday/sunday series. The Badgers draw Boston U to start the Icebreaker, should be a great matchup, then play Notre Lame or Holy Cross the following sunday. The Badger host Huntsville to start the home games and play on sunday to avoid the night football game against Ohio State.

The Showcase is still on, and the other non-conference games are against UMASS and Canisius. No road games against Boston College and New Hampshire, maybe in 2011/12. Other than the Icebreaker, the Badgers play all non-conference games at home.

11 home series next season, should be fun! The team also ends at home, which is rare.

The Badgers play two series against minnesota, Duluth and Tech. Fans will see CC, Bemidji, Mankato and North Dakota at home, and will have to travel to see Denver, UAA, St Cloud and Omaha. Some good road trips in there, the Badgers are the first FULL WCHA series at the new DECC as well in Duluth.

At first blush, I don't see any really tough stretches like in seasons past. Should be fun, I love summer, but can't wait for October.

The Men’s Schedule is “starting” to come together

Wisconsin is usually the LAST WCHA school to put out a schedule; I’m guessing we won’t see the “official” schedule until mid May at the earliest. That doesn’t mean that parts of the schedule can’t be pulled together as other schools release their schedule.

Over at USCHO, there is a thread talking about the 2010/11 WCHA schedule. About half the schools have their schedules out, so a large part of the UW schedule can be put together. In that thread, USCHO user “Yager” has been doing the heavy lifting of putting together the schedule for all 12 WCHA teams for next season. In case you forgot, Bemidji and Nebraska-Omaha join the ranks next season.

Before getting to the schedule so far, let’s quick discuss how the schedule is going to work moving forward w/ 12 teams. Each team is paired w/ another; it has always been this way. The pairings don’t change (UW/minnesota, Duluth/Tech, Denver/CC, St Cloud/NoDak, UAA/Mankato), but now Bemidji and Omaha will be pair. Each year, each pair will be paired w/ another pair (yes I wrote that on purpose) and then the pairs will rotate through on a five year cycle. This year Wisconsin and minnesota are paired w/ Duluth and Tech, and therefore besides playing the gophers in two series (this will continue to happen EVERY season) they will play two series against both Duluth and Tech. The Badgers will play every other team once, either home or away, and you can check this link out to see all the teams schedule breakdown. According to the Sioux blog, in 2011/12 UW/um will be paired w/ St Cloud and North Dakota, having home and away series against each of those teams. It also appears that the WCHA has split up CC and Denver so that each school plays one home and one away against each school (unless paired w/ them), so there will always be a road trip to Colorado each season for Badger fans who are interested.

The first rough draft of the schedule:

10/08-09 – The IceBreaker in St. Louis (Notre Lame, BU and Holy Cross as opponents)
10/15-16 – Open
10/22-23 - @ Denver
10/29-30 – Open
11/05-06 - @ minnesota
11/12-13 – North Dakota
11/19-20 – Duluth
11/26-27 – College Hockey Showcase (appears to still be going on!!!)
12/03-04 – Open
12/10-11 – Bemidji
12/17-18 – Open (doubt a series will happen here because of Finals)
Christmas!!!
12-29 – 01/02 – Open (no more Showdown)
01/07-08 – Open
01/14-15 - @ Duluth (first full series at the new DECC)
01/21-22 - Open
01/28-29 – Open
02/04-05 – Open
2/11-12 - @ Nebraska-Omaha
2/18-19 – minnesota
2/25-26 – @ St Cloud
3/04-05 – CC
3/11-13 - WCHA Playoffs
3/17-19 - WCHA Final Five
3/25-27 - NCAA Regionals
4/07 & 09 - Frozen Four @ the X

There are still quite a few gaps in there, WCHA series left to add to the schedule:

@ Tech
vs Tech
@ UAA
vs Mankato

All the tough games must have been scheduled first, eh?

There are at least TWO non-conference series to add as well. I think the Badgers get TWO exemptions this coming season, one for traveling to Alaska and one for the IceBreaker. Therefore they get 38 games? Anyone out there know if I’m right or wrong on that? Here are the non-con series I think the Badgers will have based on past info I read.

@ BC/@UNH (one game each)
vs UMASS-Lowell
vs Alabama Huntsville

I remember reading at the time of the news of the demise of the Showdown that Lowell and UAH will be coming to the Kohl Center next season, and the Badgers still “owe” a trip to the east coast against BC and UNH, but I’m not sure if that is next season or in 11/12. Also very excited to see that the Showcase might be on for at least one more season, especially since it will be at the Kohl Center.

Hatchet Joe, get the truck warmed up, time to head to St Louis and get ready for the IceBreaker!

Anyway, enjoy, we’ll keep updating this as more information is filled in and obviously post the official schedule once it is released by UW.

More on the Men's Schedule

Over at the Badger Blog, Andy Baggot had a short piece about the Men's schedule.

The only thing of major note from his post is about the final WCHA series of the year at minnesota. Apparently there is a scheduling conflict at Mariucci Arena on March 5th and 6th, so the friday night game of the series might be the Target Center. The Target Center seats a lot more people than Mariucci; might have to round up some Badger fans to invade rodent country for the friday game. The sunday game will be a Mariucci.

Finally: the Men's Schedule has been released

It has finally been released; here is a link for a pdf. Home games in bold.

Oct 9/10 - Bye
Oct 16/17 – vs CC
Oct 23/24 – @ Mankato
Oct 30/31 – vs New Hampshire
Nov 6/7 – vs minnesota
Nov 13/14 – vs UAA
Nov 20/21 – @ St. Cloud
Nov 27/28 - @ College Hockey Showcase (Michigan St and Michigan)
Dec 4/5 – vs Tech
Dec 11/12 - @ North Dakota
Dec 18/19 – Bye
Christmas weekend – Bye
Jan 2/3 – Badger Hockey Showdown vs Merrimack (other semi: Ferris State vs Yale)
Jan 8 or 9 – vs US U-18 Team
Jan 15/16 - @ CC
Jan 22/23 – vs Denver
Jan 29/30 - @ Duluth
Feb 6 – Camp Randall Hockey Classic (Michigan)
Feb 12/13 - vs Mankato
Feb 19/20 – vs St. Cloud
Feb 26/27 – @ Tech
March 5/6 - @ minnesota
March 12/13 – WCHA 1st Round
March 19/20 – WCHA Final Five
March 26-28 – NCAA Regionals (Worchester, MA; Albany, NY; Ft Wayne, IN; St Paul, MN)
April 9/11 – Frozen Four @ Ford Field

First blush, I like this schedule. Unlike last season, the Badger have 8 of 10 to start the season at home. I also like that the US NTDP U-18 team is coming to the KC for an exhibition. Badger fans will get to see two recruits in Frankie Simonelli and Michael Mersch. Frankie will be joining the blue line the following season. In the 2nd half after playing the US NTDP, there won’t be a break straight through to the WCHA playoffs.

More thoughts later. Get the calendar out, time to plan some road trips. North Dakota and Michigan Tech might be my trips for this season.

Men's Schedule: pieces slowly come together

The 2009/10 Badger Men’s schedule is starting to come together as other schools release their schedules and other information comes in. Luckily for Badger fans, over on USCHO Icebadger once again is on top of things. His working Google spreadsheet can be found here. Right now there are only six weekends left to figure out. Below I’ve taken a stab at filling in the rest of the schedule based on nothing other than blind guesses, many scenarios are possible. You’ll find those games in bold. Looking back, at this point last season UW had already released the schedule.

Oct 2/3 – Bye
Oct 9/10 - @ Mankato
Oct 16/17 – vs CC
Oct 23/24 – Bye (rumored Mankato?)
Oct 30/31 – vs New Hampshire
Nov 6/7 – vs minnesota
Nov 13/14 – Bye
Nov 20/21 – @ St. Cloud
Nov 27/28 - @ College Hockey Showcase (Michigan and Michigan State)
Dec 4/5 – vs Tech
Dec 11/12 - @ North Dakota
Dec 18/19 – Bye
Christmas weekend – Bye
Jan 1/2 – Badger Hockey Showdown (Yale, Ferris St, Merrimack)
Jan 8/9 – vs Denver
Jan 15/16 - @ CC
Jan 22/23 – vs Mankato
Jan 29/30 - @ Duluth
Feb 6 – Camp Randall Hockey Classic (Michigan)
Feb 12/13 - @ Tech
Feb 19/20 – vs St. Cloud
Feb 26/27 – vs UAA
March 5/6 - @ minnesota
March 12/13 – WCHA 1st Round
March 19/20 – WCHA Final Five
March 26-28 – NCAA Regionals (Worchester, MA; Albany, NY; Ft Wayne, IN; St Paul, MN)
April 9/11 – Frozen Four @ Ford Field

The other season opening option would likely be @ Tech. I don’t see the Badgers scheduling four consecutive home series to start the season (DU or UAA are options to open). Icebadger includes Mankato as a rumor for the weekend of Oct 23/24 in his opponents' matrix, likely as a road series, though not on his main spreadsheet. Either way, if its Mankato or Tech, w/ CC at home the weekend after, this would be a very advantageous start compared to last season. Mankato and CC are teams w/ totally unproven goalies taking over, among other deficiencies.

In the second half, my guesses leave the Badgers w/ out a bye from the Showdown til the playoffs. I could definitely be wrong about this part of things, especially if the rumored date Oct 23/24 w/ Mankato is true for a road series, opening a weekend in the 2nd half at a critical time. The lack of a break might not be the worst thing either. I think we’d all agree it would have been to the Badgers advantage to play the weekend after sweeping the rodents on the road in February instead of having the weekend off. Bye weeks help w/ injuries, but hurt w/ momentum.

If the Badgers were to play DU when I’ve guessed (based on a guess from LetsgoDU), I believe that would be the second weekend of the World Juniors. It is likely that Jake Gardiner and Derek Stepan will be part of Team USA, but DU could have some kids on Team USA or Team Canada as well, so maybe it will be a wash. Hopefully when the two teams who I think will be fighting for the MacNaughton Cup battle at the Kohl Center they are both at full strength.

The official schedule should be out soon, see how good my guesses were then. I'm banking on being completely wrong.

Looking forward to next season...

Over on USCHO, Icebadger is once again doing an outstanding job of keeping track of the Badger Men's 2009/10 schedule as it takes shape. You can find this spreadsheet here for future reference, though we'll be updating the blog here as he updates things there to pass on the info.

I get pretty excited for the schedule to be released. I really look forward to next season, as I ramp my hopes up really high and its a great way to dispel the disappointment of a season that ended not even two weeks previous. Once the Badger Men's schedule comes out, I then look forward to the GB Gamblers schedule and mix the Women's schedule in for good measure (though they often play at home the same weekends as the Men) and I create a hockey matrix. I'll throw in the Rockford IceHogs and Chicago Blackhawks too. So the off season is still pretty exciting for me. Coach Eaves helps out in this because you never know what is up his sleeve w/ recruits and what not.

Anyway, to the actual point of this post, when I was looking over Icebadger's spreadsheet, the breakdown of conference games caught my attention. Its as follows:

Single Home Series: Denver & UAA
Single Road Series: North Dakota and Duluth
Both: minnesota, CC, Mankato, St. Cloud and Tech

Non-con: vs New Hampshire, Michigan (@ Camp Randall), Showdown & to lower Michigan for the Showcase

Though team and season previews are months away, depending upon more early departures, Denver, North Dakota and Duluth are three teams I think will finish in the top half of the WCHA w/ the Badgers next season. Based on that "logic" (very loosely used) the Badgers "might" have an easier WCHA schedule next season. No game in the WCHA is actually easy, but I don't see Mankato or Tech improving much, and I see CC taking a step back w/ out Rau, Bachman and Connelly.

Just some early speculation to pass the time.

Might have to make the trip to the DUMP for one last asbestos filled hockey weekend in Duluth.

Badger Men's Hockey: schedule updates

• The match-ups have been officially set for the opening night of the Badger Hockey Showdown. At 4pm, Harvard will open v. Lake State. At 7pm, the Badgers will take on Alabama-Huntsville.

• The Saturday, March 7th game v. North Dakota has been moved back to 8pm.

Schedule Links

The men's schedule has been released, and everyone's talking about it:

Milewski (Icehouse): Dissecting the schedule

Milewski (TCT): No more conflicts with World Juniors

"We talked about it again," Eaves said, alluding to discussions at league meetings. "If teams want to play nonconference games at that time, that's fine. But no league games are supposed to be done at that time."

And apparently Wisconsin "wants" to play nonconference games at that time, as (in addition to the Badger Hockey Showdown) they'll be hosting Northern. It's nice that the WJCs won't affect league standings. But it's not-so-nice that the WJCs will affect the non-conference games that can such a huge affect on the Pairwise.

Levine (TCT): UW men's hockey opens 2008-09 slate vs. NCAA champs

Baggot (WSJ): Brutal schedule for Badgers

But while Eaves likes the performance bar to be set as high as possible, he acknowledged a scenario where that philosophy could change very quickly.

"If they create the rule that you have to be .500 or above to get into the tournament, we're going to have to take a look at what we do," Eaves said of his approach to scheduling.

Baggot (Badger Blog): Schedule not for faint of heart

2008/2009 Schedule

The schedule has been released!!!

Oct. 10, at Boston College, 6 p.m.
Oct. 11, at New Hampshire, 6 p.m.
Oct. 17, at Denver, 8:30 p.m.
Oct. 18, at Denver, 8 p.m.
OCT. 24, MINNESOTA, 7 P.M.
OCT. 25, MINNESOTA, 7 P.M.
Oct. 31, at North Dakota, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 1, at North Dakota, 7 p.m.
NOV. 7, MICHIGAN TECH, 7 P.M.
NOV. 8, MICHIGAN TECH, 7 P.M.
Nov. 14, at Minnesota Duluth, 7 p.m.
Nov. 15, at Minnesota Duluth, 7 p.m.
Nov. 21, at St. Cloud State, 7 p.m.
Nov. 22, at St. Cloud State, 7 p.m.

COLLEGE HOCKEY SHOWCASE at Kohl Center
NOV. 28, MICHIGAN STATE, 7 P.M.
NOV. 29, MICHIGAN, 7 P.M.

DEC. 5, ALASKA ANCHORAGE, 7 P.M.
DEC. 6, ALASKA ANCHORAGE, 7 P.M.

BADGER HOCKEY SHOWDOWN at Kohl Center
DEC. 27, Pairings not set (Harvard, Alabama-Huntsville, Wisconsin, Lake Superior State), 4/7 P.M.
DEC. 28, Consolation/championship game, 4/7 P.M.

JAN. 2, NORTHERN MICHIGAN, 7 P.M.
JAN. 3, NORTHERN MICHIGAN, 7 P.M.
Jan. 9, at Alaska Anchorage, 10:30 p.m.
Jan. 10, at Alaska Anchorage, 10 p.m.
JAN. 16, COLORADO COLLEGE, 7 P.M.
JAN. 17, COLORADO COLLEGE, 7 P.M.
JAN. 30, MINNESOTA DULUTH, 7 P.M.
JAN. 31, MINNESOTA DULUTH, 7 P.M.
Feb. 6, at Minnesota, 7 p.m.
Feb. 7, at Minnesota, 7 p.m.
FEB. 20, DENVER, 7 P.M.
FEB. 21, DENVER, 7 P.M.
Feb. 27, at Minnesota State, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 28, at Minnesota State, 7 p.m.
MARCH 6, NORTH DAKOTA, 7 P.M.
MARCH 7, NORTH DAKOTA, 7 P.M.

March 13-15, WCHA Playoffs (Campus Sites)
March 19-21, WCHA Final Five (St. Paul, Minn.)
March 27-28, NCAA East and Midwest Regionals (Bridgeport, Conn., and Grand Rapids, Mich.)March 28-29, NCAA Northeast and West Regionals (Manchester, N.H., and Minneapolis)

April 9-11, NCAA Frozen Four (Washington, D.C.)

Its going to be a rough start, for no other reason then we play 10 out of 14 on the road. Nice to see a non-WCHA series during the WJC against N. Michigan, though N. Michigan should be pretty good this season. I also like the home series the final weekend of the regular season.

I'll probably have more to say about this in the future, just wanted to get this out for the readers ASAP.

Putting Together Next Season's Schedule

Icebadger over on the USCHO forum has done a great job of compiling the 2008/2009 schedule as information becames available. I'll take no credit for the following information and give it all to him. Thought it would be good to pass this on to those who don't frequent USCHO. Everything is tentative til UW releases the official schedule, which will hopefully occur next month.

Date Opponent
Oct 3-4 - - - - -
Oct 10-11 at BC, UNH (tentative dates)
Oct 17-18 at DU
Oct 24-25
Oct 31-Nov 1 at UND
Nov 7-8 vs MTU
Nov 14-15 at UMD
Nov 21-22 at SCSU
Nov 28-29 College Hockey Showcase (Mich, Mich St)
Dec 5-6
Dec 12-13 - - - - -
Dec 26-27 Badger Hockey Showdown (tentative dates) (Harvard, AL-Huntsville, LSSU)
Jan 2-3
Jan 9-10 @ UAA
Jan 16-17
Jan 23-24
Jan 30-31 vs UMD
Feb 6-7
Feb 13-14
Feb 20-21 vs DU
Feb 27-28
Mar 6-7 vs UND
Mar 13-15 WCHA 1st Round Playoffs (campus sites)
Mar 19-21 WCHA Final Five (St Paul MN)
Mar 27-29 NCAA Regionals (Manchester, NH, Bridgeport, CT, Minneapolis, MN, Grand Rapids, MI)
Apr 9/11 Frozen Four (Wash DC)

To Be Scheduled: home vs UAA, home vs CC, home/away vs Minny, home vs NMU, away vs MSUM

Tough start is shaping up. I would assume N. Michigan will be the home series on Oct 24/25. Hopefully UW doesn't schedule a series on Jan 2/3, so the WJC doesn't interfere w/ WCHA play again this season.