According to WTKA’s Michael Spath, the Michigan hockey team will return its game to the great outdoors this winter, as the Wolverines are slated to face off against Notre Dame at the Fighting Irish’s football stadium as part of the festivities surrounding the 2019 NHL Winter Classic.

The main event, which will pit the Chicago Blackhawks against the Boston Bruins at Notre Dame Stadium for the 11th installment of the event, will take place Jan. 1, 2019. While official details for Michigan’s game have yet to be announced, a source indicated to WTKA’s Inside The Huddle that the game is set to take place Jan. 5, one week after the Wolverines’ annual participation in the Great Lakes Invitational in downtown Detroit.

The matchup between Michigan and Notre Dame should be one of the bigger draws in college hockey next season, and could very well generate a capacity crowd for the 77,622-seat stadium. After splitting the regular-season series, 2-2, last season, the two teams emerged as top-10 teams at the end of the 2017-18 season before meeting in the Frozen Four, where the Fighting Irish broke a 3-3 tie with six seconds to go to advance to the national title game.

This year, both teams return as much talent as anyone in the country and are putting the finishing touches on top-flight recruiting classes full of future NHL Draft picks. As a result, the two teams figure to be top-five teams in the preseason polls.

The game will be Michigan’s eighth outdoor hockey game, but first since the Wolverines took on Michigan State in Soldier Field for the Hockey City Classic Feb. 7, 2015. After the game was delayed due to warm ice and was marred by a sparse crowd, then-Michigan coach Red Berenson indicated that interest in outdoor hockey games had waned, noting that "when the crowds quit coming, then obviously it won't make any sense.”

Regardless, Notre Dame — fresh off a second-consecutive Frozen Four appearance and winning the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles in its first season in the conference — should warrant strong interest for the event. The Fighting Irish carried the bulk of the 52,051 fans at Soldier Field for the 2013 Hockey City Classic, and competing in a successful matchup against Boston College at Fenway Park in 2014.

Notre Dame will become just the second college stadium to host an NHL game, joining the Wolverines who drew 105,491 fans when the Detroit Red Wings hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2014. Four years prior, Michigan set the hockey single-game attendance record, when 113,411 fans came to watch Michigan take on Michigan State at Michigan Stadium for the Big Chill at the Big House.

The hockey team won’t be the only Michigan squad to trek to South Bend next season, as the Wolverines’ football team is slated to open the 2018 season at Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 1.