Following the successful completion of pod play in Omaha, Neb., the NCHC has announced changes to its upcoming schedule for the second portion of the 2020-21 season.
The biggest change, which affects all teams, is the reduction of both scheduled three-game series down to two-game series. The two three-game series between Colorado College and North Dakota, Miami and St. Cloud State, Denver and Omaha, and Minnesota Duluth and Western Michigan, which were slated for Jan. 21-24 and Feb. 11-14, will now be played as two-game series on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 22-23 and Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12-13.
The locations of the series are not changing, but, CC-UND, Miami-SCSU, Denver-Omaha, and UMD-WMU will now only face each other four times during the regular season, giving each team a 24-game conference slate.
For health and safety reasons, the NCHC Athletic Council voted to eliminate the three-game series. The changes were made related to challenges with COVID-19 testing during the three-game series weeks, mitigating risk to COVID-19 by lessening team travel, and the desire to alleviate time away from each member institution’s campus.
The other adjustment involves Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State, which are switching some dates and locations over the first two weekends of 2021. The first series between the has been pushed back one day and will now take place entirely in St. Cloud on Saturday, Jan. 2 and Sunday, Jan. 3. The first series was slated to be played Jan. 1-2 in a home-and-home format.
The following weekend, the Huskies and Bulldogs will still square off again on Jan. 8-9 as scheduled, but the entire series will take place in Duluth, rather than the scheduled home-and-home locations.
