Notre Dame will host two in-season tournaments - the Ice Breaker Tournament and the Shillelagh Tournamennt - as part of the 2014-15 hockey schedule.

Irish Hockey Announces 2014-15 Schedule

July 28, 2014

Notre Dame, Ind. –

2014-15 Hockey ScheduleGet Acrobat Reader

University of Notre Dame hockey coach Jeff Jackson today announced the 2014-15 Notre Dame hockey schedule. The 37-game schedule opens on Sunday, Oct. 5 with a preseason contest versus the University of Waterloo and is the start of a 21-game home schedule at the Compton Family Ice Arena.

The 2014-15 campaign will be Notre Dame’s second season in Hockey East where the Irish will play 22-conference games with Notre Dame playing 11 home games and 11 away games versus league foes. The Irish will play 10 teams twice, either at home or away while splitting a series with league newcomer, the University of Connecticut, playing once at the Compton Family Ice Arena and once in Bridgeport, Conn., versus the Huskies.

The Irish will participate in three in-season tournaments during the season, hosting two of them. Notre Dame will play host to the Ice Breaker Tournament on October 10th and 12th with Minnesota Duluth, the University of Minnesota and Rensselaer participating. Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota will open the tournament on Friday, Oct. 10 at 2:05 p.m. with Notre Dame facing Rensselaer at 7:35 p.m. Day two of the tournament will be on Sunday, Oct. 12 with Rensselaer playing either UMD or Minnesota in the first game at 12:05 p.m. while the Irish will play host to either UMD or Minnesota at 3:35 p.m. There is a break in the tournament on Sat., Oct. 11, as Notre Dame will be kicking off against the University of North Carolina in football at 3:30 p.m.

On Nov. 28-29, the Irish will host their own Shillelagh Tournament at the Compton Family Ice Arena. Joining the Irish this season are Western Michigan, Ohio State and Union College. Former CCHA rivals Western Michigan and Ohio State open the tournament on Friday, Nov. 28 in a 4:05 p.m. game. Notre Dame will then face the 2013-14 NCAA champion Union College Dutchmen in the nightcap at 7:35 p.m. Union will then face either the Broncos or Buckeyes in Saturday’s (Nov. 29) first game at 4:05 p.m. while the Irish will play one of their former CCHA opponents in the second game at 7:35 p.m.

The schedule will take Notre Dame to Florida for a post-Christmas Tournament in Estero as the Irish join Cornell, Miami and Lake Superior State in the Florida College Hockey Classic in Estero, Fla., on Sunday-Monday, Dec. 28-29. Notre Dame squares off against the Miami RedHawks in a 4:05 p.m. game on Dec. 28 with Lake Superior and Cornell battling at 7:35 p.m. The third-place and championship games will be played on Monday, Dec. 29 at 4:05 and 7:35 p.m. respectively.

In all, the Irish will play 14 non-league games with at least one game versus teams from each of college hockey’s five other conferences. Notre Dame is scheduled to play two games versus teams from the ECAC (Rensselaer and Union College with the chance of playing Cornell in the second game of the Florida College Hockey Classic). The Irish could play as many as five games versus teams from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference as they will play Miami one game in the College Hockey Classic and are scheduled for a home-and-home series with Western Michigan. There is the possibility of playing Minnesota Duluth in the Ice Breaker Tournament and Western Michigan a third time in the Shillelagh Tournament.

The 2014-15 schedule includes two games at Big 10 foe Minnesota with the possibility of a third against the Gophers in the Ice Breaker Tournament and one against Ohio State in the Shillelagh Tournament in November. Lake Superior State represents the new WCHA and has two games on the schedule against the Irish with the possibility of a third in the College Hockey Classic. Last, but not least, Notre Dame will face off twice against Niagara in October with the Purple Eagles representing Atlantic Hockey.

The Hockey East schedule will feature home series with Vermont, defending league champion UMass.-Lowell, New Hampshire, Providence College and Boston College. The Irish will travel to Merrimack, Massachusetts, Northeastern, Maine and Boston University after hosting those schools last season. The conference’s newest member, the Connecticut Huskies, will face the Irish in a home-and-home series in January. The two teams will meet for the first time ever on Friday, Jan. 16 at the Compton Family Ice Arena. Two days later, Sunday, Jan. 18, the teams will meet in Bridgeport, Conn., at the Webster Bank Arena in a 2:00 p.m. contest.

The regular-season campaign begins with the Ice Breaker Tournament on Friday, Oct. 10 when the Irish face Rensselaer for the first time since the Engineers helped open the Compton Family Ice Arena on Oct. 21, 2011 with Notre Dame taking a 5-2 victory. This will mark the first time that the Irish have hosted the Ice Breaker Tournament and the fourth time that they have played in the season-opening tournament (1999, 2010, 2012, 2014). In 2012, Notre Dame took the tournament championship with wins over Maine and Nebraska-Omaha.

Including the exhibition game versus Waterloo, the Irish will play their first nine games at home. After the Ice Breaker, the schedule includes home games with Lake Superior State (Oct. 17-18), Niagara (Oct. 24-25) and the Hockey East opener with Vermont (Oct. 31-Nov. 1).

From there, Notre Dame plays four straight on the road, traveling to Minnesota (Nov. 7 and Nov. 9). The Friday-Sunday series is around Minnesota hosting Iowa in football on Nov. 8. The second set of games will mark the first Hockey East road games of the season as the Irish travel to Merrimack on Nov. 14-15. This will be the first time that Notre Dame has played at North Andover, Mass., since the 1990-91 season.

The Irish return home for back-to-back home series to close out November. They will play host to the UMass.-Lowell River Hawks in a Thursday-Friday series, Nov. 20-21. That series will mark the first-ever visit by UMass.-Lowell to Notre Dame. The River Hawks won all three meetings last season, including a 3-0 win in the Hockey East semifinals.

The Shillelagh Tournament closes out November on the 28th and 29th as part of Thanksgiving weekend. The Irish play host to Union College, Ohio State and Western Michigan in the fifth edition of the tournament and the second played at the Compton Family Ice Arena.

While the Irish were home the entire month of October, they will be on the road for all four games in December. On Dec. 5-6, they travel to Amherst, Mass., to face the Massachusetts Minutemen who lead the all-time series, 4-3. After breaking for finals and Christmas, Notre Dame will gather in Florida for Christmas and in preparation for the Sunday-Monday Florida College Classic Hockey Tournament in Estero, that features Miami, Lake Superior and Cornell. Notre Dame will face Miami in its opening game. This is the second time that the Irish have participated in this tournament with the first time coming in 2003 when it was called the Everblades Tournament. Notre Dame finished third after losing to Cornell and defeating Maine.

The 2015 portion of the schedule opens with a home-and-home series against Western Michigan on Jan. 9-10. The Broncos will play host to the first game of the series with Saturday’s game at Notre Dame. From there, the remainder of the schedule is all Hockey East.

Notre Dame and Connecticut meet in a home-and-home get together on Jan. 16 and 18 in the first-ever meetings between Hockey East’s newest members. The Irish then travel to Northeastern on Jan. 23-24 and close out January with a pair of home games against New Hampshire (Jan. 30-31).

February features four series for the stretch run. On Feb. 6-7, Notre Dame travels to Orono, Me., for a pair of games and then returns home to play host to Providence College on Feb. 13-14. The Irish visit Boston on Feb. 20-21 for two games at Boston University and then close out the regular season with a pair of home games against Boston College (Feb. 27-28).

Hockey East’s playoffs begin the first weekend in March – March 6-8, with a best-of-three first-round series. With the addition of Connecticut this season, the first four finishers in the regular-season standings will have a bye with the remaining eight teams meeting in the first round. The quarterfinals (March 13-15) will feature the four teams that had a bye in the first round hosting the first-round winners in a best-of-three series. The four series winners advance to the Hockey East championship weekend will be March 20-21 at the TD Garden Arena in Boston, Mass.

The Irish schedule doesn’t end there. Following the Hockey East tournament, the Compton Family Ice Arena will play host to the 2015 NCAA Midwest Regional on Sat.-Sun, March 28-29. Notre Dame will have the opportunity to play at home should the Irish qualify for the NCAA’s following the regular-season schedule. Ticket information for the NCAA Regionals will be available at a later date.

Current season ticket holders will be receiving renewal information for the 2014-15 season this week and new season tickets can be purchased beginning on August 20.

For information on season tickets, contact the Notre Dame ticket office at 574-631-7356 or logging onto und.com/tickets.

The 2014-15 Notre Dame Hockey Schedule

October 5 Sun. University of Waterloo (Exhibition) 5:05 p.m. 10-12 Fri.-Sun. Ice Breaker Tournament (at Notre Dame, Ind.)


10 Fri. Minnesota Duluth vs. Minnesota 2:05 p.m.
Rensselaer at Notre Dame 7:35 p.m.

12 Sun. Rensselaer vs. Minnesota Duluth/Minnesota 12:05 p.m.
Notre Dame vs. Minnesota Duluth/Minnesota 3:35 p.m.
17 Fri. Lake Superior State 7:35 p.m.
18 Sat. Lake Superior State 6:05 p.m.
24 Fri. Niagara 7:35 p.m.
25 Sat. Niagara 7:05 p.m.
31 Fri. Vermont * 8:05 p.m.

November
1 Sat. Vermont * 7:05 p.m.

7 Fri. at Minnesota TBA
9 Sun. at Minnesota TBA
14 Fri. at Merrimack * 7:00 p.m.
15 Sat. at Merrimack * 7:00 p.m.
20 Thur. UMass.-Lowell * 7:35 p.m.
21 Fri. UMass.-Lowell * 7:35 p.m.
28-29 Fri.-Sat. Shillelagh Tournament (at Notre Dame, Ind.)

28 Fri. Ohio State vs. Western Michigan 4:05 p.m.
Notre Dame vs. Union College 7:35 p.m.

29 Sat. Union College vs. Ohio State/Western Michigan 4:05 p.m.
Notre Dame vs. Ohio State/Western Michigan 7:35 p.m.

December
5 Fri. at Massachusetts * 7:00 p.m.
6 Sat. at Massachusetts * 7:00 p.m.
28-29 Sun.-Mon. at Florida College Hockey Classic (at Estero, Fla.)

28 Sun. vs. Miami 4:05 p.m.
Cornell vs. Lake Superior State 7:35 p.m.
29 Mon. Third-Place Game 4:05 p.m.
Championship Game 7:35 p.m.


January

9 Fri. at Western Michigan 7:00 p.m.
10 Sat. Western Michigan 6:05 p.m.
16 Fri. Connecticut * 7:35 p.m.

18 Sun. vs. Connecticut (at Bridgeport, Conn.) * 2:00 p.m.
23 Fri. at Northeastern * 7:00 p.m.
24 Sat. at Northeastern * 7:00 p.m.
30 Fri. New Hampshire * 7:35 p.m.
31 Sat. New Hampshire * 6:35 p.m.

February
6 Fri. at Maine * 7:05 p.m.
7 Sat. at Maine * 7:05 p.m.
13 Fri. Providence College * 7:35 p.m.
14 Sat. Providence College * 8:05 p.m.

20 Fri. at Boston University * 7:05 p.m.
21 Sat. at Boston University * 7:05 p.m.
27 Fri. Boston College * 7:35 p.m.
28 Sat. Boston College * 6:05 p.m.

March
6-8 Fri.-Sun. First Round Hockey East Playoffs (at Campus Sites) TBA
13-15 Fri.-Sun. Hockey East Quarterfinals (at Campus Sites) TBA
20-21 Fri.-Sat. Hockey East Championships (TD Garden, at Boston, Mass.) TBA
28-29 Sat.-Sun. at NCAA Regional (at Notre Dame, Ind.) TBA


April

9-11 Thur./Sat. at NCAA Frozen Four (at Boston, Mass.) TBA

HOME GAMES IN Bold
* Hockey East Conference games
Dates and times subject to change; times local to site
All home games played at the Compton Family Ice Arena.