The Minnesota State men's hockey team will open the season with a bang in 2016-17. The Mavericks will host Michigan Tech on Oct. 7-8 at the Verizon Wireless Center in a clash of last season's MacNaughton Cup co-champions. They will follow that up with a nonconference series against in-state rival St. Cloud State on Oct. 14-15.
UPDATE: Read more about the schedule and coach Mike Hastings' comments on it and the WCHA's new playoff format here.
You can see MSU's full schedule here, but here are the highlights:
• The Mavericks will play 17 home games (plus one exhibition game), including the first half of a home-and-home nonconference series with Minnesota on Nov. 18-19. Eleven home games will take place in October, November and December.
• They will be playing just one other nonconference series, going to Princeton Dec. 16-17.
• Other home series include: Ferris State (Oct. 28-29), Bemidji State (Nov. 11-12), Alaska (Dec. 2-3), Bowling Green (Jan. 13-14), Lake Superior State (Jan. 27-28) and Northern Michigan (Feb. 17-18).
• Other road series include: Alaska (Oct. 21-22), Lake Superior State (Nov. 4-5), Ferris State (Dec. 9-10), Alabama Huntsville (Jan. 6-7), Michigan Tech (Jan. 20-21), Alaska Anchorage (Feb. 3-4) and Bemidji State (Feb. 24-25).
• Minnesota State's exhibition game will be Oct. 1 against the University of Regina.
• The series at Bemidji will close out the regular season, and the new WCHA playoff format begins a week later (March 3-4) with quarterfinal series. Semifinal series will take place March 10-12, and the championship game will take place March 18, a Saturday.
• It's interesting that MSU is playing just 34 games, despite going to Alaska twice. The NCAA allows more games for teams that make the trip to Alaska, and the Mavericks have traditionally played a 36-game schedule.
• The Mavericks are the team out of the North Star College Cup this year after playing in the first three.
The WCHA released its composite schedule for the season, and that can be found here.
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