With the Big Ten joining college hockey, 11 of the country’s most storied programs will compete this fall in 13 games in the inaugural Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge.
Both conferences made the announcement Tuesday.
Thirteen designated games will be played between October 18-27, with six games in Hockey East arenas on the first weekend, followed by six games in Big Ten arenas and a single game on neutral ice the second
weekend.
“The Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge will offer a tremendous opportunity to build a relationship between our two conferences and to promote the strong traditions of college hockey on a national level,” said Big Ten associate commissioner Jennifer Heppel in a statement. “The student-athletes will also benefit from the chance to take part in meaningful nonconference competition against other top programs.”
“The college hockey landscape is going through a major change this season and each conference needs to look beyond its familiar boundaries,” added Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna. “We have great respect for the hockey-playing institutions in the Big Ten and we hope to develop this concept to allow all of our programs to participate in this competition in future years.”
The Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge Cup will be presented to the conference that records the most points from the 13 games. Teams will earn points as follows: two points for a win, one point for a tie and a bonus point for a road win.
Should a Big Ten school utilize a shootout in any of its home games, it will not factor into the result.
Should each conference record the same number of points, the results of the Penn State-Vermont neutral-site game in Philadelphia on Oct. 26 will serve as the tiebreaker.
Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge Schedule
(All times EST and 7 p.m. unless noted)
Friday, October 18
Wisconsin at Boston College
Michigan State at Massachusetts
Michigan at New Hampshire (7:30 p.m.)
Saturday, October 19
Wisconsin at Boston University
Michigan State at Massachusetts
Michigan at New Hampshire
Friday, October 25
Boston College at Minnesota (8 p.m.)*
Boston University at Michigan#
UMass Lowell at Michigan State@
Saturday, October 26
Boston University at Michigan State
UMass Lowell at Michigan#
Penn State vs. Vermont % (Philadelphia – 5 p.m.)
Sunday, October 27
Boston College at Minnesota (2 p.m.)^
* Big Ten Network
# XFINITY Channel 900
@ Fox Sports Detroit
% Comcast Philadelphia and New England
^ Fox Sports North and Sports Time Ohio
