University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Announces 2016-17 Schedule
6/8/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
Schedule | Season Tickets
MINNEAPOLIS - The back-to-back defending national champion Minnesota women's hockey team has released its 2016-17 schedule, which includes exhibition games against the Minnesota Whitecaps, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game against Minnesota State, the always-challenging WCHA slate, and another WCHA Final Faceoff at Ridder Arena.
Minnesota starts its season with a home series against Lindenwood University Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. The series marks the first-ever meeting between the two programs. The Gophers' unofficial season-opener will be held Friday, Sept. 23 in an exhibition rematch with the Minnesota Whitecaps after the teams split an exhibition series in 2015-16.
The Gophers' non-conference schedule also includes a road series at Boston University to end the first half of the season (Dec. 9-10). The series with the Terriers is a rematch of the 2013 national championship game, in which the Gophers won 6-3 to secure the program's fifth national crown. The teams last meet during the opening weekend of the 2014-15 season with a 5-2 Minnesota win.
Minnesota's league schedule begins with a series at Bemidji State Oct. 7-8. WCHA play in the first half of the season also includes home series with Minnesota Duluth (Oct. 14-15), St. Cloud State (Oct. 27-28), Minnesota State (Nov. 4-6), and Bemidji State (Nov. 26-27) and road series at Ohio State (Oct. 21-22), North Dakota (Nov. 18-19) and Wisconsin (Dec. 2-3).
Following the holiday break, the season resumes in 2017 with another exhibition game against the Minnesota Whitecaps on Friday, Jan. 6, followed by the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game against Minnesota State at Braemar Arena in Edina, Minn. (Jan. 8).
Conference play then picks up again with the Gophers traveling to Minnesota Duluth (Jan. 13-14) before hosting Ohio State (Jan. 20-21). The last four weeks of the regular season have Minnesota at St. Cloud State (Jan. 27-28) and at Minnesota State (Feb. 3-4) before hosting league rivals North Dakota (Feb. 10-11) and Wisconsin (Feb. 18-19) on back-to-back weekends at Ridder Arena.
The first round of the WCHA playoffs is set for Feb. 24-26 with the top four teams in the regular-season standings hosting four best-of-three series. The WCHA Final Faceoff then returns to Ridder Arena March 4-5.
The NCAA postseason begins with quarterfinal games March 10-11, and the 2017 NCAA Women's Frozen Four will be held in St. Louis, Mo., hosted by Lindenwood University March 17-19.
The Golden Gophers finished the 2015-16 season as back-to-back national champions, securing the program's seventh national title. Minnesota finished with an overall record of 35-4-1 and a 24-3-1 WCHA record as regular-season runner-up.
Six seniors will lead the 2016-17 Gophers while head coach Brad Frost continues at the helm of the program in his tenth season behind the bench. Minnesota also adds six newcomers to the line-up.
Season tickets for the next chapter of Gopher women's hockey are on sale now. General admission season tickets are $79, and reserved chairbacks are still available for $99. For more information, please contact the Gopher Sports Sales & Service Department at 1-800-U-GOPHER or 612-624-8080 (option 1) during business hours, Monday-Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT.
Schedule subject to change.
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