Arizona Wildcats Schedule: Hockey Releases 2013-14 Dates and Opponents

The Arizona Hockey team has released its 2013-14 schedule, and it looks like it's going to be another tough one for the Wildcats. Last year, UA had the third highest strength of schedule in the ACHA. This year appears to be right up there again.

"I think it is important to schedule the toughest of competition and I think we accomplished that with our schedule this year. In our opinion this season's schedule will again be one of the tougher schedules in the nation," commented head coach Sean Hogan. "For us to have success we need to play the elite teams and we have scheduled accordingly."

Of the 40 games that Arizona will play this year, 25 of them are against teams that qualified for the ACHA National Tournament last year. This year will also be the first time that the Wildcats compete as part of a division (Western Collegiate Hockey League) since 1997-98 when they decided to become independents. The division also includes Arizona State, Oklahoma, Central Oklahoma, Colorado and Colorado State.

Schedule Highlights:

8 games against Arizona State (October 4th and 5th, January 31st and February 1st in Tempe, December 6th and 7th, February 21st and 22nd in Tucson)

Season opener: September 27th at NAU

First WCHL game: October 17th vs. Central Oklahoma in Oklahoma City

First WCHL home game: October 31st vs. Colorado

24 total home games - 22 in a row from October 25th to January 25th (all of them start at 7:30 PM at TCC)

Seven games vs. past National Champions (4 vs. Minot State, 1 vs. Delaware, 2 vs. Iowa State)