The defending national champions, Denver Hockey, announced their 2024-25 schedule Wednesday. Denver opens the season with a trip to David Carle’s home state of Alaska on October 5th & 6th to face the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves. The Pioneers then return to home ice against Northeastern two weeks later. The non-conference schedule is highlighted by a Wisconsin Badger trip to Magness on October 25th and 26th, followed by a road trip to face Yale on November 1st & 2nd. Lindenwood closes out the early non-conference schedule.
Denver completes their non-conference schedule with winter break games against UNLV (exhibition) on December 28th at Magness Arena before making another cross-country trek to Orono to face the Maine Black Bears on January 3rd & 4th.
Denver students have winter break from November 22nd through January 6th so students who don’t stick around campus will miss home series against Arizona State and games against rival Colorado College in addition to the UNLV exhibition.
We have an @NCAAIceHockey title to defend next season.
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The NCHC Conference schedule starts quickly on the weekend of November 15th with a trip to Grand Forks and a two-game series against the Fighting Hawks, defending Penrose Cup winners. Arizona State visits DU the following week. Denver takes off two weeks before traveling to Kalamazoo to face Western Michigan December 6th-7th. The Colorado College rivalry commences mid-December with a home-and-home battle for the Gold Pan. Conference play resumes after the non-conference break on January 10th-11th with a home series against the Miami Redhawks. Denver goes to Duluth to play the Bulldogs in their only regular-season meeting on January 24th and 25th. Omaha travels to Denver the following week for their sole series against the Pioneers. A big road trip for DU hockey (and their fans) will be on February 7th and 8th against Arizona State in Tempe, Arizona. Denver follows that with away and home weekends against Miami and St. Cloud State. The season concludes with a Friday, March 7th showdown at Magness Arena against the Tigers and a Saturday showdown at Ed Robson Arena.
This is a great schedule from a PWR development standpoint, and certainly having a long string of non-league games before NCHC play in mid November will help the young Pios to hopefully gel faster. Northeastern for Homecoming/banner raising weekend is a perfect opponent – a challenging team — way more than a cupcake.
Seeing the Wisconsin Badgers come to Denver is the non-league highlight of the season, and that will be a hot ticket. Having Lindenwood as the team for DU Hockey’s 75th anniversary weekend is also a plus, as it turns a dud opponent into must-see event, as all those players come back to campus again. This will be emotional, as some of those 1960s Pios are now in their 80s…
The schedule also puts a lot of road miles on this DU group, with long bonding trips to Alaska, Maine and New Haven on the docket. Playing on the east coast every year is a must for the Pios for so many reasons – PWR, recruiting, visibility, media and alumni/prospective students living there.
Playing in the madhouse that is Alfond Arena in Orono, Maine is great tourney prep – the fans are right on top of the players. I also love the Yale series, as Yale will be captained by DU legend Kevin Dineen’s son, Will Dineen, and playing at Yale’s Eero Saarinen-designed rink is a treat. It’s also huge opportunity for DU’s New York and New England alumni to get together to support the Pios, and playing any Ivy League school helps to elevate the perception of our school.
On the negative side, I hate the fact that DU has to play CC on a DU student break, and I don’t like the fact that CC gets bye weeks before playing DU for both Home-and-Home series, either, but those are things that DU needs to work on with the league. I also don’t like the UNLV Club Team exhibition in December that does very little for DU except to sell tickets and make money. Play it as a pre-season game.
And of course, DU will play at Maine without David Carle, who will be at the World Juniors with Team USA, as well as probably Zeev Buium, too. Pios will need to be special there to get results without those two…
Great having Wisconsin on schedule! My only question is LIndenwood. Why? Agree that UNLV should be a pre-season game.
Reason 1:
The Lindenwood and UNLV games are money-makers for DU. Do the math – you sell 6,000 seats at $40 each (avg.) is a $240,000 gate per game and those three games funnel $720,000 in revenue into DU’s coffers, give or take.
Reason 2:
I think DC also sees these games (at least the Lindenwood games) as probable wins, which he needs for PWR purposes and job security (all coaches need wins!). You need to spread and balance you non-con games among different levels of opponents. Too many good opponents mean more risk of losses, too many cupcake games won’t help develop your team.
Reason 3:
DC likes to give these kinds of visiting, developing programs a chance to play against a defending champion to allow them to measure where they are, and give their student-athletes a big thrill weekend to play against the best. It’s good for college “have” programs like DU to be generous and play these up-and-coming programs to help grow the sport.
Seems like a cool schedule. Swami, you think Zeev will be back for DU next year?
Yes, I think Zeev will be back at DU. He’s only 18, and needs another year to get stronger to be a NHL-ready defensemen, which is different than being a young forward. I don’t think any NHL team, no matter where he is drafted, wants to play a defender that young and ruin his confidence right away. College hockey is ideal for weight-room development over the AHL, which is where he would be next year if he signs after the draft. Why ride AHL busses for $80,000/yr when you could be a Hobey candidate/leader for a defending national champion DU program and the US World junior team, be with your best friends, in a school and city you love + get another year closer to your degree? With another year to go at DU, I think he walks into the NHL in April of next year, (hopefully with a second NCAA ring!) and avoids the minors altogether…
Thanks, Swami. Thank god, I wasn’t sure, with him projected to be a top 10 pick. Having Davis, Zeev, and Devine back would make a nice foundation for the team.