COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Having recently completed a successful first decade of competition, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) is already looking ahead to its second decade, releasing the conference schedule for the 2023-24 season on Tuesday.

The 2023-24 campaign will be the NCHC’s 11th year of play and will once again feature a 96-game regular-season slate, with the champion hoisting the Penrose Cup. All eight NCHC teams will play a 24-game conference schedule, as the Conference has always done, with the first NCHC games set for Nov. 3-4. The NCHC regular season concludes on March 8-9, with the 2024 Frozen Faceoff on March 22-23 at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn.

While the official start date for the 2023-24 men’s college hockey season is set for Saturday, Oct. 7, the first three conference series don’t take place until Friday and Saturday, Nov. 3-4. The opening weekend of NCHC play features an early Gold Pan clash between Colorado College and Denver, as well as Miami at St. Cloud State and Western Michigan visiting Omaha. The Pioneers are the two-time defending Penrose Cup champions, but fell to their rival Tigers in the 2023 Frozen Faceoff semifinals.

Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota both start conference play the following weekend, Nov. 10-11, when the Fighting Hawks travel to Duluth to battle the Bulldogs. That weekend also features three NCHC series (including UND at UMD), while the weekend of Nov. 17-18 is the first full weekend of conference action with all eight teams in NCHC play. Rivals UMD and SCSU collide in St. Cloud that Nov. 17-18 weekend for the first of their two series against each other.

A full slate of conference play on Dec. 8-9 is the final NCHC action of the 2023 calendar year. Conference competition resumes with another full weekend on Jan. 12-13, which features a pair of rivalry series. Western Michigan heads to Oxford, Ohio to face Miami, while Omaha heads north to take on North Dakota in their first series of the season.

It’s all conference action until Feb. 9-10 and Feb. 16-17 when only four teams are slated to play each weekend (two series), while the other four teams have a scheduled bye. The weekend prior on Feb. 2-3 features a rematch of the 2023 Frozen Faceoff title game as the Huskies visit Colorado College.

The final three weekends of the regular season all feature full slates of NCHC play, with rivalry partners all playing each other on March 8-9. Miami plays at WMU, North Dakota heads to Omaha, SCSU makes the trek to Minnesota Duluth and the battle for the Gold Pan wraps up in Denver on Saturday, March 9.

Throughout the conference season, NCHC squads 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). Teams will play 12 home and 12 away conference games in the regular season.
 
The top four seeds in the NCHC Tournament will then host the bottom four seeds in best-of-three quarterfinal series Friday, March 15 through Sunday, March 17. The four quarterfinal series winners advance to the 2024 NCHC Frozen Faceoff in Saint Paul, Minn. Both semifinals at Xcel Energy Center will take place on Friday, March 22, with the Championship on Saturday, March 23.
 
The Julie and Spencer Penrose Memorial Cup is awarded to the NCHC regular-season champions, won by Denver each of the last two seasons. Only three teams have captured the Penrose Cup in NCHC history (Denver, North Dakota and St. Cloud State). The winner of the NCHC Frozen Faceoff receives the Frozen Faceoff Trophy and the Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, won by St. Cloud State last season (2023).

All dates listed for the 2023-24 NCHC schedule are subject to change and times are still to be announced. The non-conference portion of the 2023-24 schedule will be added once all NCHC teams announce their own non-conference schedules.
 
KEY DATES IN 2023-24:

• Saturday, Oct. 7 – Official Start Date
• Friday, Nov. 3 – First NCHC Games
• Saturday, March 9 – Final Day of NCHC Regular Season
• March 15-17 – NCHC Quarterfinals
• Friday, March 22 – Frozen Faceoff Semifinals
• Saturday, March 23 – Frozen Faceoff Championship
• March 28-31 – NCAA Regionals
• Thursday, April 11 – Frozen Four Semifinals
• Saturday, April 13 – National Championship