DENVER – The University of Denver hockey program announced today its full 2026-27 regular-season schedule and includes home games against Michigan, Boston College, North Dakota, Colorado College and Arizona State.
 
Denver and Michigan will face off during the home opening weekend on Oct. 16-17 after the teams met in the NCAA Frozen Four earlier this month in Las Vegas. DU won that meeting by a 3-2 score in double-overtime and went on to win its 11th national championship two days later against Wisconsin.
 
The Pioneers and Wolverines will be playing for the first time in the regular season since they were both members of the old WCHA during the 1980-81 campaign. Michigan will be making its first visit to Denver since March 5-7, 1981.
 
DU kicks off its national title defense and 78th season of Pioneer hockey on Oct. 2-3 at Alaska Anchorage. The Pios will be starting the season on the road in America's Last Frontier for the third time in the last five seasons, as they also began the 2024-25 campaign at the home of the Seawolves. Denver will then start a season-long, six-game homestand from Oct. 16-31 after playing in Anchorage and will have 10-of-12 games at Magness Arena from Oct. 16-Nov. 21.
 
The Pioneers will host the Boston College Eagles the weekend after taking on the Wolverines on Oct. 23-24, marking the fourth consecutive season and the eighth and ninth meetings between the two programs since 2019. DU then opens its 24-game league slate in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference during Halloween weekend versus the Omaha Mavericks on Oct. 30-31.
 
Denver will play an even amount of 18 home and 18 away games during the year, as the program picked up a two-game exception to play 36 outings this season due to its trip to Alaska.
 
DU will also play Lindenwood on home ice in a non-conference series on Nov. 13-14 before facing the University of St. Thomas for the first time in program history the following weekend on Nov. 20-21 to wrap up a four-game homestand.
 
St. Thomas is in its inaugural season in the NCHC as the conference's 10th member after previously playing the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). DU and UST will meet in just one series this season.
 
Denver has two other road non-league series during the year, as the Pios travel to face the Boston University Terriers over Thanksgiving weekend on Nov. 27-28 and will spend the New Year in Ohio against Bowling Green State on Jan. 1-2. DU and BU last played in the 2024 Frozen Four en route to the Pioneers' NCAA-record 10th national title and will be facing off in the regular season for the first time since 2017-18. Denver and BGSU have played just three times previously in their history and are set for their first-ever contests at Slater Family Ice Arena; they last faced off in the 2001 Denver Cup.
 
The Pioneers will be in the meat of their NCHC campaign after concluding their non-conference slate at Bowling Green and will have a road-heavy schedule in the second half of the season. DU begins a season-long, six-game road swing on Dec. 11-12 at St. Cloud State and the trip continues after the Holiday Break with the series at BGSU and a playoff rematch at Western Michigan on Jan. 8-9. Denver defeated WMU in both the 2026 NCHC Semifinals and NCAA Regional Final.
 
Overall, DU will play nine-of-12 contests away from Magness Arena from Dec. 11-Jan. 30 and will play on the road in 13-of-18 games from Nov. 27-Feb. 13.
 
Colorado College is Denver's travel partner in the now 10-member NCHC, and the Pioneers are guaranteed to play the in-state rival Tigers four times each season. The first two games of the campaign will be split across two weekends, with the teams playing for the first time next year on Jan. 16 in the Mile High City before venturing south to Colorado Springs on Jan. 30.
 
DU and CC wrap up the regular season against one another with a home-and-home series on Feb. 26 at Colorado College and Feb. 27 at Magness Arena.
 
After mostly playing on the road in January, the Pioneers will close out the main campaign with three of their final four (Feb. 19-27) and five of their last eight games (Feb. 5-27) on home ice. The Pioneers' only true road series in that time is two games in Oxford, Ohio, against the Miami RedHawks on Feb. 12-13.
 
Along with each team's travel partner, every NCHC member will face two other opponents in both home and road series per season on a four-year rotation. The remaining six opponents will only face-off once per year, either in a home or away series. All NCHC school will play each other in at least one series each season.
 
In addition to Colorado College, Denver will play Arizona State and St. Cloud State four times in 2026-27, with both the Sun Devils (Feb. 5-6) and Huskies (Feb. 19-20) making the trip to Magness Arena late in the regular season.
 
Denver's first series against Arizona State on the road will be split across three days from Nov. 6-8, as the teams are set to play a special Sunday, 12 p.m. MT game at Mullett Arena in Tempe to close out the weekend.
 
The Pios host fellow 2026 Frozen Four participant North Dakota on home ice on Dec. 4-5, as the Fighting Hawks last squared off at Magness on Feb. 14-15, 2025. DU will play at Minnesota Duluth on Jan. 22-23 in an NCHC Final rematch after the Pioneers won in double-OT on March 21 to claim this year's conference tournament championship on home ice.
 
The NCHC playoffs will be played entirely at campus sites for the second straight season and begin with a best-of-three first round on March 5-7. Each of the 10 teams will qualify for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, with the top five schools in the standings playing the bottom five in a series on the first weekend.
 
The remaining five teams will reseed after the opening round, with the two lowest remaining seeds (now No. 4 and No. 5 seeds) playing on Friday, March 12 at the home site of the top seed in a single-game quarterfinal. The top two remaining seeds will host semifinal matchups on March 13, with the No. 1-seeded squad taking on the winner of the No. 4-5 matchup.
 
The 2027 NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship will be held on either March 19 or 20 at the home site of the highest-remaining seed to earn the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The exact date of the conference final will be announced later in the offseason.
 
Denver will host the NCAA West Regionals at Blue Arena in Loveland, Colorado, for the second consecutive season from March 25-28. If the Pioneers qualify for the NCAA Tournament, they will play their regional games in Northern Colorado at the home of the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles. Bridgeport, Connecticut; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Fargo, North Dakota, are the other regional sites next year.
 
The 2027 NCAA Frozen Four is set for April 8-10 at the home of the NHL Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. DU will be the host institution for the 2028 Frozen Four in Chicago, Illinois, at United Center.