DENVER – The University of Denver hockey team announced today its full 2024-25 schedule, with the Pioneers celebrating 75 years of history throughout the campaign and beginning their national title defense on Oct. 5-6 at Alaska Anchorage.
Denver won its college hockey-record 10th national championship last season and aims to repeat as NCAA champions for the fourth time in program history. The Pioneers last won back-to-back national titles in 2004 and 2005 (also 1960, 1961; and 1968, 1969).
New season ticket holder deposits are now available for the 2024-25 season. Purchase a seat deposit today to lock in the best seats available for a limited time.
KEY DATES:
Student Season Ticket Campout: Saturday, Oct. 5
Homecoming: Oct. 18-19
Banner Raising: Saturday, Oct. 19
Parents Weekend: Oct. 25-26
75th Anniversary Weekend: Nov. 8-9
SCHEDULE BREAKDOWN:
Non-Conference: 12 Games (H: Northeastern, Wisconsin, Lindenwood | A: Alaska Anchorage, Yale, Maine)
NCHC Games: 24 Games (H: Arizona State, Colorado College, Miami, Omaha, North Dakota, St. Cloud State | A: North Dakota, Western Michigan, Colorado College, Minnesota Duluth, Arizona State, Miami)
DU will play a new National Collegiate Hockey Conference schedule next year with the addition of Arizona State as the league's ninth member. The new schedule model and rotation consists of three, three-team pods based on geography with teams guaranteed to play home and away series against the other two teams in their pod every season (eight games).
Denver is part of a "western" pod with Colorado College and Arizona State, while the other two team pods are Minnesota Duluth, North Dakota and St. Cloud State; and Miami, Omaha and Western Michigan.
Denver hosts Arizona State on American Thanksgiving weekend on Nov. 22-23 and will travel to Tempe on Feb. 7-8. The Pioneers will once again have a pair of home-and-home series against Colorado College, with the first prior to the Holiday Break on Dec. 13-14 and at the end of the regular season on March 7-8. DU and ASU have met 12 previous times as non-conference foes, with the Pios owning a 9-2-1 mark in such outings.
The remaining 16 conference games will be played against the six 'non-pod' teams, with four opponents only being played in one series (eight games), home or away, and two 'non-pod' opponents being played in both home and away series (eight games). The 'non-pod' teams that are played either once or twice in a series will rotate over three seasons.
The Pioneers have two series slated against both Miami and North Dakota during the season. DU will play at two-game road series at Western Michigan on Dec. 6-7 and Minnesota Duluth on Jan. 24-25, while facing Omaha (Jan. 31-Feb. 1) and St. Cloud State (Feb. 28-March 1) at home-only sets.
The Pioneers will play a 36-game regular season for a third consecutive campaign, as they have a two-game exemption due to opening the year at Alaska Anchorage on the first weekend of the college hockey campaign. Denver's schedule is balanced with 18 home and 18 away games overall, including an even six at home and six on the road in its 12-contest non-conference slate.
DU will open in Alaska for the second straight season after winning both games in Fairbanks versus the Nanooks to start 2023-24, but the squad will be making its first trip to Anchorage since January 2012 and the teams will be facing off in their first meeting since Oct. 19, 2013 when they played a single game in Fairbanks as part of the Gold Rush Tournament. The Seawolves are set for their third season after being reinstated following a two-year hiatus around the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Denver opens its home slate at Magness Arena two weeks later with Homecoming Weekend against Northeastern on Oct. 18-19 and the Pioneers will raise its 10th national championship banner to the rafters in the series finale on Saturday, Oct. 19. DU and NU will be meeting the first time since the Huskies last visited the Mile High City on Jan. 2, 2005.
The Pioneers' longest homestand of the season occurs in the first month of the season as they'll host former Western Collegiate Hockey Association-foe Wisconsin the week after the home opener on Oct. 25-26. The Badgers are set to play their first games in Denver since Nov. 26, 2016.
Denver is set for a pair of trips to the northeast during the campaign for non-conference outings, with its first on Nov. 1-2 in New Haven, Connecticut, at Yale. DU will then travel to Orono, Maine, for the first time since Oct. 14-15, 2005 to face the Maine Black Bears to start the New Year on Jan. 3-4 in its final non-NCHC matchup of the season before resuming conference play at home on Jan. 10-11 against Miami.
The Pioneers' final home non-conference games are Nov 8-9 against Lindenwood, which will serve as the backdrop to the program's 75th Anniversary Weekend with several on-ice and off-ice activities planned. A full schedule of events will be announced later this summer.
DU then heads to Grand Forks on Nov. 15-16 to begin the NCHC schedule and face the Fighting Hawks in the first half of rivals' four-game season series. DU takes on UND at Magness Arena on Feb. 14-15.
Denver's longest road swing comes in early December with three games from Dec. 6-13 at Western Michigan and the start of the home-and-home set against CC.
DU will play an AHCA squad for the fourth straight year and its second-straight mid-season matchup as the Pios host UNLV in an exhibition at Magness Arena after the holiday break on Dec. 28. The teams also squared off in an exhibition on Oct. 1, 2022.
NCHC play fills the remainder of the season after its trip to Maine, beginning with a home weekend against Miami (Jan. 10-11). Following its last bye of the season, Denver alternates home and away weekends the rest of the way. Down the stretch, Denver hosts Omaha, North Dakota, and St. Cloud State, while making trips to Minnesota Duluth, Arizona State and Miami.
The Pioneers finish the regular season with four consecutive games in Colorado as they face St. Cloud State for the only time this season on Feb. 28-March 1 in a rematch of the 2024 NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinals before hosting the CC Tigers in the Battle for the Gold Pan on March 7 and wrapping up the campaign the next night in Colorado Springs.
Denver defends its NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship with the start of the best-of-three Quarterfinal series on March 14-16 at campus sites. Teams seeded No. 8-9 in the standings will face off in a one-game playoff earlier in the week at the No. 1 seed's home arena before facing the Penrose Cup winner that weekend. Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, will host the Frozen Faceoff for the final time on March 21-22 before the conference tournament moves to being held exclusively at home sites in 2026.
NCAA Regionals are March 27-30 at four pre-determined sites (Allentown, Pa.; Fargo, N.D.; Manchester, N.H.; Toledo, Ohio), and the 2024 Frozen Four is set for April 10-12 in St. Louis, Missouri, at Enterprise Center.
TICKETS: Fans can purchase a season-ticket deposit for the 2024-25 season today by clicking here.
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