Piecing Together The 2012-13 Wisconsin Hockey Schedule

Thanks to the help of some beat writers from around the league, namely Kevin Pates from the Duluth News Tribune, we've been able to piece together most of the 2012-13 Wisconsin Men's hockey schedule.

Here are the facts that we know at this time. Wisconsin will play Minnesota, Minnesota State, and Alaska Anchorage four times each. The Gophers are the Badgers traditional scheduling rival and they have always played then four times per season. This year the Wisconsin and Minnesota pod matches up with the Mankato and Anchorage pod, so that's why they will play them four times each.

With the guaranteed road trip to Anchorage, the Badgers will be granted an exemption to schedule two extra non-conference games this season. That means instead of a 34 game schedule, the Badgers will play a 36 game schedule this season.

The four non-conference opponents that the Badgers will face this season are Miami, Lake Superior State, Penn State, and Northern Michigan. The Penn State games are at the Kohl Center. The Northern Michigan games are at the Resch Center in Green Bay but are home games for NMU. It's unknown if the Miami and Lake State series will be home or away, but we'll assume they are both home at this point to guarantee the Badgers 20 home dates.

Also keep in mind that Wisconsin's home series with Minnesota this year is tentatively scheduled to include an outdoor game at Soldier Field on Sunday, February 17th.

2012-13 Tentative Wisconsin Hockey Schedule

OCTOBER

12/13--@ Northern Michigan (Resch Center)

19/20--Miami (?)

26/27--@ Minnesota-Duluth

NOVEMBER

2/3--Colorado College

9/10--

16/17--@ Minnesota

23/24--Minnesota State

30/1--@ Denver

DECEMBER

7/8--Michigan Tech

14/15--

21/22--

28/29--Lake Superior State (?)

JANUARY

4/5--@ Alaska Anchorage

11/12--@ Minnesota State

18/19--

25/26--Alaska Anchorage

FEBRUARY

1/2--@ North Dakota

8/9--Bemidji State

15/17--Minnesota (Friday Kohl Center, Sunday @ Soldier Field)

22/23--Penn State

MARCH

1/2--@ Nebraska Omaha

8/9--St. Cloud State

That's what we've got so far at this point of the off-season. We're fairly certain that the WCHA schedule is 100% accurate. The Penn State series could be moved to a Saturday/Sunday series due to potential conflicts with the WIAA State Tournaments at the Kohl Center.

The only real question marks at this point are when the Miami and Lake State series will fit in the schedule. I made my best guess based on the information available. Lake State has a series scheduled for that second weekend of the year and at this point it looks like Miami has that open so it makes sense that the Miami series will fit in there since I'm guessing Eaves doesn't want to play the first weekend of the year, and take a weekend off.

There were a few open dates available for the Lake Superior series but I figure it's unlikely that Wisconsin will schedule a series the 14/15th or the 21/22nd of December as those weekends bookend finals at the University. Assuming UW doesn't want to go into a WCHA series with a three week break, my best guess is that Lake State series will slide in right before New Years.

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