NCHC releases composite schedule; Western Michigan schedule – including GLI appearance – revealed

By Michael Caples –

The National Collegiate Hockey Conference announced their inaugural season schedule today, including many of the Western Michigan Broncos’ games for next season.

The Broncos, one of eight teams to join the new college hockey conference, will open the season on Saturday, Oct. 5, with the opponent visiting Kalamazoo to be named at a later date. On Oct. 11, the Broncos will travel to Notre Dame to take on the CCHA Champion Fighting Irish. Notre Dame will travel to Western Michigan the next night to complete a home-and-home series with the Broncos.

Western Michigan will play their first NCHC game against Colorado College in Kalamazoo on Nov. 1. The two schools will play a weekend set at Lawson.

The Broncos will meet CCHA rival Miami on Jan. 10-11 in Kalamazoo and Feb. 7-8 in Oxford, Ohio.

Non-conference games of note include:

• The Broncos will take part in a tournament hosted by Alaska Fairbanks on Oct. 18-19, along with NCHC member Denver.
• Western Michigan hosting Northern Michigan on Nov. 9-10.
• Western Michigan and Michigan State will play a home-and-home series on Nov. 22-23.
• Western Michigan will take part in a Notre Dame Tournament on Nov. 29-30.
• Western Michigan is listed as a Great Lakes Invitational participant.

From the press release:

“The NCHC’s conference schedule features eight of the nation’s top programs facing each other on a weekly basis,” said Brian Faison, UND Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Chair of the Board for the NCHC in a press release. “Beyond that, each of our member institutions has put together a non-conference schedule that will feature elite programs from all over the country. Between the grueling league schedule and an incredibly challenging non-conference schedule, we anticipate a highly entertaining debut season for the NCHC.”

Opening weekend (October 18-19) for NCHC intra-conference play will feature a Friday night double-header with both games being televised nationally on CBS Sports Network. North Dakota will travel to Oxford, Ohio, for a conference game at Miami while Minnesota-Duluth will open at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo. CBS Sports Network will also provide national television coverage of select NCHC hockey games throughout the season.

“I could not be more excited that our inaugural season is right in front of us,” NCHC Commissioner Jim Scherr said. “The 2013-14 schedule is tremendously competitive with an aggressive non-conference slate for all eight institutions. Getting our opening weekend games on national television is a fantastic way to kick off the season and put the great institutions of our conference on the national stage.”

The conference regular season will culminate in the inaugural NCHC post season tournament, with the eight institutions all competing in the quarterfinals, March 14-16. The top four seeds will host the bottom four seeds in a best of three series. The winners of the quarterfinal series will advance to the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis, MN, March 21- 22. The two semifinal winners will meet in the NCHC Championship game while the losers will play for third place, March 22, 2014. Both semi-final and championship games will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.