Photo courtesy DU Athletics
At long last, the wait is over. After months of patience and speculation, the University of Denver hockey program released its schedule for the 2018-19 season today. Of course, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) released all eight teams’ conference schedules in mid-April so fans have known for months when the Pioneers would be playing conference foes. But there was still a lot of speculation about who the Pioneers would be playing outside of the NCHC.
There were rumors flying about Michigan and whether Denver would be playing the Wolverines this season. We now know for certain that at least this season, the Pioneers will not play the only program with more national titles. Even in Michigan’s absence, the Pioneers have a couple of nonconference series that, if Denver finds success in those weekends, will likely go a long way in helping their Pairwise positioning come March 2019.
Without further ado, Denver’s schedule for new head coach David Carle’s first season at the helm is listed below:
October
6 – University of Alberta (Exhibition)
12 – at Air Force
13 – Alabama Huntsville
19 & 20 – University of Alaska-Fairbanks
November
2 & 3 – Western Michigan
9 & 10 – at St. Cloud
16 & 17 – Minnesota Duluth
23 & 24 – Providence
December
7 & 8 – at North Dakota
28 – at UMass Lowell
29 – at Merrimack
January
4 & 5 – at Wisconsin
11 & 12 – Omaha
18 – at Colorado College
19 – Colorado College
25 & 26 – at Western Michigan
February
1 & 2 – North Dakota
15 & 16 – at Minnesota Duluth
22 & 23 – Miami
March
1 & 2 – at Omaha
8 – Colorado College
9 – at Colorado College
Single game tickets are not yet on sale but click here for season ticket and ticket package details. Once your tickets are taken care of, you can officially start the countdown. We’re just 81 days away from the exhibition game.
Why are they doing during the UAH weekend? Only 1 game that weekend. Doesn’t really make sense.
I meant to say “why are they doing homecoming that weekend”.
Homecoming is the UAH game weekend because DU needed to nail down a ‘new’ homecoming date early this summer for campus-wide planning purposes. My guess is that the original Homecoming plan would likely have been the Oct 19-20 weekend vs Michigan, but Michigan pulled out in the Spring, and there was a hole in the schedule that DU needed to fill. The UAF home series was only added in the last couple of weeks this July as a last minute substitute for the Michigan pullout, and it was too late to reschedule homecoming back to the UAF weekend. The WMU weekend in November was also considered, but weather is typically better in October.
In actuality, I like the one-game homecoming weekend because it makes that one UAH Homecoming game more important for people to attend, rather than splitting up the homecoming crowds over two games.
On balance, I think DU should be commended for filling the Michigan-pullout hole as well as they did with UAF. I am sure it cost them some money on short notice to get UAF here, but losing two more home games would have been tragic for revenue and for a very young DU team that will likely take some lumps this year. The Michigan series would have been epic, as the Wolverines have not played at DU since 1980, so that makes me sad.
I am also not thrilled with the first CC series being pushed to January. I much prefer to see DU play CC early and late in the season, not midseason and late season. The Providence home series is also during the student break, which is slightly unfortunate, but I like the fact that DU is playing mostly road games during the DU student break in December, and that both the two CC series and the UND series will at least be scheduled when the DU students are on campus. I am not a fan of rivalry games scheduled during DU student breaks, as it hurts home ice advantage.
Correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t DU (and I’m sure many other schools) purposely scheduled rivalry games against teams like CC and UND during student break as a means to sell more tickets in the student section to generate additional revenue?
Why are they doing during the UAH weekend? Only 1 game that weekend. Doesn’t really make sense.
I meant to say “why are they doing homecoming that weekend”.
Homecoming is the UAH game weekend because DU needed to nail down a ‘new’ homecoming date early this summer for campus-wide planning purposes. My guess is that the original Homecoming plan would likely have been the Oct 19-20 weekend vs Michigan, but Michigan pulled out in the Spring, and there was a hole in the schedule that DU needed to fill. The UAF home series was only added in the last couple of weeks this July as a last minute substitute for the Michigan pullout, and it was too late to reschedule homecoming back to the UAF weekend. The WMU weekend in November was also considered, but weather is typically better in October.
In actuality, I like the one-game homecoming weekend because it makes that one UAH Homecoming game more important for people to attend, rather than splitting up the homecoming crowds over two games.
On balance, I think DU should be commended for filling the Michigan-pullout hole as well as they did with UAF. I am sure it cost them some money on short notice to get UAF here, but losing two more home games would have been tragic for revenue and for a very young DU team that will likely take some lumps this year. The Michigan series would have been epic, as the Wolverines have not played at DU since 1980, so that makes me sad.
I am also not thrilled with the first CC series being pushed to January. I much prefer to see DU play CC early and late in the season, not midseason and late season. The Providence home series is also during the student break, which is slightly unfortunate, but I like the fact that DU is playing mostly road games during the DU student break in December, and that both the two CC series and the UND series will at least be scheduled when the DU students are on campus. I am not a fan of rivalry games scheduled during DU student breaks, as it hurts home ice advantage.
Correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t DU (and I’m sure many other schools) purposely scheduled rivalry games against teams like CC and UND during student break as a means to sell more tickets in the student section to generate additional revenue?
Dan: You are correct – DU has used CC and UND home series games to sell student section tickets for regular adult prices over the DU student break in past years to take advantage of the extra local demand, but this year, it’s different. The NCHC schedules are done in advance, and it seems to me that other priorities have prevailed in terms of when those games fall on the schedule.
The first CC weekend falling later in the season probably helps DU a bit this year, since the Pios will be so young. If that series is played in October or November, I think DU would get wiped out by the Tigers, who will be a nationally-ranked, very experienced team this season. By waiting until January, I think DU has a shot at a split if they can come together.
Dan: You are correct – DU has used CC and UND home series games to sell student section tickets for regular adult prices over the DU student break in past years to take advantage of the extra local demand, but this year, it’s different. The NCHC schedules are done in advance, and it seems to me that other priorities have prevailed in terms of when those games fall on the schedule.
The first CC weekend falling later in the season probably helps DU a bit this year, since the Pios will be so young. If that series is played in October or November, I think DU would get wiped out by the Tigers, who will be a nationally-ranked, very experienced team this season. By waiting until January, I think DU has a shot at a split if they can come together.