COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – While the 2016-17 campaign recently wrapped up with a National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) team winning the national championship for the second straight season, the NCHC is already looking ahead to next season, unveiling its 96-game 2017-18 conference schedule Wednesday for its fifth season of competition. All eight NCHC teams will play a 24-game conference slate, culminating in the fifth annual NCHC Frozen Faceoff in Minneapolis.

The 2017-18 NCAA hockey season officially gets underway Saturday, Sept. 30, but the first conference games don’t take place for nearly a month when North Dakota travels to Colorado College for the lone NCHC series Oct. 27-28. Five other NCHC teams begin conference play the following weekend (Nov. 3-4) with defending national champions and Penrose Cup champions Denver opening at Western Michigan, Miami hosting Colorado College and 2017 Frozen Faceoff champions Minnesota Duluth starting NCHC play at rival St. Cloud State.

The final NCHC team to start conference play is Omaha, which opens at Colorado College Nov. 10-11. That weekend also marks the first of two consecutive weekends with all eight teams in conference play. The Nov. 17-18 weekend is highlighted by a series between the last two national champions in rivals North Dakota and Denver at Magness Arena.

A third full weekend of conference play is set for Dec. 8-9, which features the first two games of the Gold Pan rivalry between CC and Denver, as well as former CCHA rivals Miami and Western Michigan squaring off in Kalamazoo and UND at St. Cloud State in a rematch of a 2017 NCHC Quarterfinal series. This is the final weekend of conference play before the holiday break with 36 conference games taking place prior to the hiatus.

Conference action resumes Jan. 5-6 with two series as Denver visits Miami while Omaha travels to North Dakota. All eight NCHC teams are then in conference play again in back-to-back weekends Jan. 19-20 and Jan. 26-27, with in-state rivals SCSU and UMD completing their four-game series Jan. 26-27 in Duluth. A Frozen Faceoff title game rematch takes place the weekend before with the Bulldogs hosting North Dakota Jan. 19-20.

Only two conference series are on the slate for both Feb. 2-3 and Feb. 9-10, with WMU and Miami wrapping up their rivalry series the latter weekend. The other two protected rivalry series conclude Feb. 16-17 with the Pioneers and Tigers completing their home-and-home series and the Fighting Hawks visiting Omaha.

Beginning with the Feb. 16-17 weekend, the final three weekends of the regular season all feature a full slate of conference games with all eight teams in NCHC play. The regular season then concludes March 2-3 with Omaha at UMD, SCSU at North Dakota, WMU at CC and Miami at Denver. The regular-season champion receives the Julie and Spencer Penrose Memorial Cup, which was awarded to Denver for the first time in 2016-17.

Like in previous seasons, all eight NCHC teams will play five teams, including their protected rival, in both home and away series, while facing the other two teams for just one series (one home and one away). All eight teams will play 12 home and 12 away conference games.

Following the regular season, the NCHC Tournament begins with the best-of-three quarterfinal series March 9-11, 2018 with the top four seeds hosting the bottom four seeds on campus sites. The series winners then advance to Target Center in Minneapolis for the fifth annual NCHC Frozen Faceoff, won by the Bulldogs last season, with the semifinals Friday, March 16 and the third-place game and championship on Saturday, March 17. The Frozen Faceoff winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

All dates listed are subject to change and times are all still to be determined. The television schedule with NCHC nationally and regionally televised games will be unveiled as the season nears. The non-conference portion of the 2017-18 schedule will be added once all NCHC teams announce their own non-conference schedules.

The NCHC is coming off another banner year after its fourth season of play. Four NCHC teams made the 2017 NCAA Tournament, the third straight year at least four NCHC teams qualified, with Denver winning its eighth national championship and second straight for the NCHC. DU defeated Minnesota Duluth in the first ever all-NCHC national championship game in Chicago as the NCHC placed two teams in the Frozen Four for the third straight season. National championship game rematches are set for Dec. 1-2 in Duluth and Feb. 2-3 in Denver. Four NCHC teams also finished the 2016-17 season ranked in the top 12 nationally in both the USCHO.com Poll and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll.

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