Huskies Releases Preliminary Hockey Schedule

The University of Washington Huskies Hockey Club released a preliminary schedule for their upcoming 2016-17 American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 2 season last week.

According to its website, they are scheduled to play 29 regular season games beginning on the weekend of September 30th and October 1st with another early season non-conference rematch with the Boise State University Broncos at Olympicview Arena.  The Huskies will begin Pacific-8 Hockey Conference action the following week by defending their I-5 Cup title against the University of Oregon Ducks.  Because of the rivalry football game taking place on Saturday October 8th in Eugene, the first two meetings of the series will once again have a Thursday-Friday game to avoid conflict pre-scheduling on the day of the football game.  Both clubs will resume the other half of the series in late January back in Mountlake Terrace.

The weekend series in Oregon is part of a seven-game road trip for the Huskies that will also see them play three games in three nights out in the greater Los Angeles/Orange County area (one vs. USC, two vs. UCLA), then wrap up the trip with a two-game weekend series against the Washington State University Cougars out in Spokane.

WSU and UW will play two more games but separately within a few days apart.  A November 10th matchup pits the two teams in the MLT and another game taking place on Sunday November 13th in Kent.  There is no official word as to whether that game will take place either at the Kent Valley Ice Centre or inside the ShoWare Center before or after a Seattle Thunderbirds' Western Hockey League game.

Washington will also take part in the weekend long Lone Star Shootout Tournament, which will take place January 13-15 at the Spirit Ice Arena in College Station, Texas, home to the Texas A&M Aggies hockey team.

Here is how the schedule is broken down:

Regular Season Games:  29 (not including two open dates on December 9-10)

PAC-8 Games:  14 (not including PAC-8 tournament)

Non-Conference Games:  15

Home Games (Olympicview Arena):  12

Home Game (Neutral Site):  1

Road Games (including neutral site):  16

The Huskies and the rest of its conference opponents will more than likely earn automatic bids to the conference tournament in February as there are now only six teams in the Pac-8 with the departure of the University of Utah Utes moving over from ACHA Division 2 over to ACHA Division 1.  Since Utah's departure, the tournament format as to how many games that the Huskies will play has not yet been determined.

Tryouts and training camps will exist between September 19th through the 22nd, with two exhibition games at Olympicview Arena on September 23rd and 24th against the Eastern Washington University Eagles.