Dutchmen release 2013-2014 schedule

Men's hockey 2013-2014 schedule

by Ryan Fay

Union released its 2013-2014 men's hockey schedule on Friday.

The release isn't particularly big news for readers here, as the bulk of the schedule had already been pieced together throughout the past several weeks. The lone revelations were the dates of the two long-rumored games at Penn State. Union will play there on Nov. 30-Dec. 1.

The schedule features 34 games against six non-league opponents and the 11 other members of ECAC Hockey. Two-time defending Whitelaw Cup champion Union will host 15 home contests, up one from the past two seasons, and will take on at least one team from every conference.

The Dutchmen will play six games against participants in this past season's Frozen Four with two against Quinnipiac, two against Yale, and two against St. Cloud State.

Some schedule highlights:

Union will have four home games in October, opening the season with two against Bowling Green on Oct. 11-12 and two against Lake Superior State on Oct. 18-19. The last time the Dutchmen had four home games in October was the 2010-2011 season.

“I know it’s been talked about in years past that we’ve started with a lot of games on the road, but this year we’re playing at home for the first four games against two excellent opponents,” Union head coach Rick Bennett said. “It’s a nice way for us to start the season.”

League play gets underway in November. Union will travel to Dartmouth and Harvard on Nov. 1-2 before hosting Colgate and Cornell the following weekend. The home-and-home with RPI is a week after that.

“I think our league has been an absolute war in the past few seasons and I don’t see that changing at all,” Bennett said. “I think that we will have a big target on our back similar to what this past year’s team had with a lot of expectations.”

One particularly tough stretch occurs in December. After a rare Wednesday night game vs Dartmouth on Dec. 11, the Dutchmen will board a plane and travel to St. Cloud State for two games on Dec. 13-14. The 1,000-plus mile trip to St. Cloud State is the farthest trip Union will make during the regular season.

“We have a tough grind in December with three games within four days,” Bennett said. It’s similar to what happened to us in the NCAA Tournament in the fact of facing a little adversity in scheduling. I think we have that here, playing Dartmouth at home and then jumping on the plane the next day and heading out to St. Cloud State for two games against a Frozen Four opponent.”

As grueling as that trip may be, the Dutchmen will have plenty of time to rest. They will be off for four weeks prior to resuming play on Jan. 10 at Quinnipiac, the defending ECAC regular season champions.

The rest of the schedule will be almost exclusively league play. The lone exceptions are two unusually late out of conference games at New Hampshire on Jan. 17-18 and the non-league Mayor's Cup against RPI at the Times Union Center on Jan. 25.

Six of the seven games in January are away from Messa Rink with the lone home contest being Harvard on Jan. 24.

February and March will see more balance in the schedule with four home games and five road games. The Dutchmen close out the regular season on Mar. 1 at Brown.