The University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team is once again willing to play one of the toughest schedules in the country, with 10 of its 31 regular season games against teams that finished the 2016-17 in the NCAA Frozen Four.

The Bulldogs, who will play their 18th season this fall, finished the 2016-17 season one game shy of joining those teams, but hosted the an NCAA Regional game for the first time since 2010 last March.  UMD is eyeing a return to the NCAA tournament with the strength of its 2017-18 schedule, complete with 24 games against Western Collegiate Hockey Association members and seven out-of-league showdowns.

The Bulldogs will open the regular season against Penn State University at AMSOIL Arena on Sept. 29-30, the first meeting between UMD and the Nittany Lions in program history.  From there, the Bulldogs will jump right into PairWIse fire to travel to Boston College on Oct. 5-6.  UMD will play four of its first eight games against 2017 NCAA Frozen Four teams, including BC and the University of Minnesota.  The Gophers will travel to Duluth Oct. 20-21 for a rematch of the two squads 2017 NCAA Regional.  UMD will return the trip in mid December, visiting Ridder Arena in the last series of 2107 on Dec. 8-9.

UMD will step out of conference play to face WCHA foe Bemidji State University in the U.S. Hall of Fame Game in Cambridge, Minn. on Nov. 6.  The Bulldogs will also play in the University of Vermont Tournament on Nov. 24-25 in Burlington, Vermont, marking a total of seven nonconference games for UMD in the first 17 games of the season.

UMD will play two exhibition games against the Minnesota Whitecaps (Sept. 23 and Jan. 5, 2018), and will open the 2018 portion of the season by hosting the Beavers on Jan. 12-13.  From there, the Bulldogs will play a grueling WCHA schedule, highlighted a visit from the University of Wisconsin (Feb. 9-10).

The Bulldogs finished the 2016-17 season with the biggest turnaround in program history, posting a 25-7-5 record and a 19-5-4 record in en route to a third place finish in the WCHA.  UMD also spent 21-consecutive weeks in the top-10 rankings.

2017-18 UMD Women's Hockey Schedule