BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The upcoming Hockey East season now have dates.
The Hockey East Association gave the University of Connecticut Huskies and its eleven members a finalized Conference-Only schedule for the 2020-21 season that takes COVID-19 into account.
UCONN will open the season on the road with its only overnight stay, as they play a pair of games in Burlington, VT at the Gutterson Field House on November 20th and 21st against the Vermont Catamounts.
The Maine Black Bears will come to Connecticut for the Huskies’ first home games as they play a pair of games on November 27th and 28th.
Both the Men’s and Women’s hockey programs will play their home slate of games at Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum, which is normally their practice facility. There will be no games played at the XL Center in downtown Hartford in the 2020-21 season.
The rest of the schedule is set up as home-and-home games to eliminate any overnight stays. The Huskies will not be going to Orono, Maine, and they will play the Black Bears at Alfond Arena.
The only game on the schedule with a fixed time is their New Year’s Day game against the New Hampshire Wildcats, which has a 4:00 PM start and will be seen on the New England Sports Network (NESN).
Three of the five college hockey conferences, Hockey East, the Big 10, and NCHC, will start their respective seasons at the end of the week. The other two, the AHA and the ECACHL, have yet to announce their regular season plans.
The league also unveiled that NESN will broadcast 34 games through January 1st.
Once again, Hockey East will partner with NESN and ViacomCBS Digital to broadcast every Hockey East game in the 2020-21 season.
The full television broadcast schedule and “How-To-Watch” information about those games being streamed, as well as specific game times, will be announced in the coming days.
Details on the 2021 Hockey East Tournament format will be announced at a later date. Schedules are tentative and subject to change.
There is still no word on the Beanpot Tournament, the NCAA Regionals, or The Frozen Four in Pittsburgh. Those are yet to be determined.
One important feature of the upcoming limited regular season is the flex scheduling matrix. Three-of-the-final five weekends of regular season play in each league have been designated as Flex Weekends.
Flex Weekend contests are tentative, and opponents may be changed to maintain a competitively-balanced schedule for each team. If games are postponed during the regular season, these Flex Weekend games will be rescheduled to accommodate those postponed games. Any games played during Flex Weekends will be designated as “Non-Conference” games and will not count toward the Army ROTC Hockey East Standings.
Additional Flex Dates have been added throughout the schedule, where availability allows for maximum flexibility to play a full regular-season schedule and prioritize the student-athlete’s education and health.
The State of Connecticut’s Public Health Officials has determined that in-person attendance at Freitas Ice Forum will be initially limited to the student-athletes and coaches’ families. Should conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic improve over the course of the 2020-21 hockey seasons, the directive could potentially be adjusted.
UCONN 2020-21 MEN’S HOCKEYS SCHEDULE
| Nov. 20 | at Vermont* | Burlington, VT | TBA | |
| Nov. 21 | at Vermont* | Burlington, VT | TBA | |
| Nov. 27 | MAINE* | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Nov. 28 | MAINE* | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Dec. 11 | at Boston College* | Chestnut Hill, MA | TBA | |
| Dec. 12 | BOSTON COLLEGE | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Jan. 1 | at New Hampshire# | Durham, NH | 4:00 PM | NESN |
| Jan. 2 | NEW HAMPSHIRE# | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Jan. 7 | at Massachusetts* | Amherst, MA | TBA | |
| Jan. 9 | MASSACHUSETTS* | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Jan. 15 | NEW HAMPSHIRE* | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Jan. 16 | at New Hampshire* | Durham, NH | TBA | |
| Jan. 22 | UMASS-LOWELL* | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Jan. 23 | at UMass-Lowell* | Lowell, MA | TBA | |
| Jan. 29 | NORTHEASTERN* | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Jan. 30 | at Northeastern* | Boston, MA | TBA | |
| Feb. 5 | BOSTON UNIVERSITY* | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Feb. 6 | at Boston University* | Boston, MA | TBA | |
| Feb. 12 | PROVIDENCE* | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Feb. 13 | at Providence* | Providence, RI | TBA | |
| Feb. 19 | at UMass-Lowell# | Lowell, MA | TBA | |
| Feb. 20 | UMASS-LOWELL# | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Feb. 26 | at Northeastern# | Boston, MA | TBA | |
| Feb. 27 | NORTHEASTERN# | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Mar. 5 | MERRIMACK* | Storrs, CT | TBA | |
| Mar. 6 | at Merrimack* | North Andover, MA | TBA |
ALL DATES AND TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
All home games in BOLD and will be played at the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum
*- Hockey East game
#- Flex game – does not count in the conference standings
