Men's Hockey releases 2023-24 schedule

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The RIT men's hockey team announced the 2023-24 schedule, Thursday.
 
The Tigers have 35 total games scheduled for the coming season, including 18 dates at the Gene Polisseni Center as well as the annual Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend contest at Blue Cross Arena in downtown Rochester opposite Notre Dame.
 
"We are looking forward to another great season and we have a strong schedule to challenge us," said Head Coach Wayne Wilson, who begins his 25th year behind the RIT bench. "There's nothing better than playing in front of our fans and we'll have plenty of opportunities for the Tiger faithful to come out and support our bid for another championship."
 
RIT opens the 61st season in program history on Saturday, Oct. 7, with a trip to St. Lawrence, before hosting an exhibition game versus Guelph (Ont.) two days later.
 
The Tigers will entertain the Irish the following Saturday (Oct. 14) in the Brick City game, before welcoming Sacred Heart to the Gene Poisseni Center (Oct. 20-21) for a two-game set to open Atlantic Hockey play.
 
RIT will hit the road for a pair of conference doubleheaders at Holy Cross (Oct. 27-28) and Army (Nov. 3-4) before hosting three home series opposite Mercyhurst (Nov. 10-11), New Hampshire (Nov. 24-25) and Robert Morris (Dec. 1-2).
 
The Tigers will pay a visit to AIC (Dec. 8-9) before wrapping up the month with a trip to Dartmouth for the Ledyard Classic to take on Maine (Dec. 29) and either the host Big Green or Lake Superior State (Dec. 30).
 
RIT will kick off the New Year hosting Clarkson (Jan. 5) and a rematch with St. Lawrence (Jan. 6) to close the non-league portion of the schedule. The Tigers will travel to Niagara for a Thursday (Jan. 11) showdown before hosting Canisius (Jan. 13) two days later.
 
 After a two games at Robert Morris (Jan. 19-20) and a pair of home games versus Bentley (Jan. 26-27), the Tigers will play a Thursday-Saturday home-and-home with Niagara (Feb. 1, 3). The squad will close the regular season at Mercyhurst (Feb. 9-10) and home with Air Force (Feb. 16-17) along with a home-and home with Canisius (Feb. 23-24).
 
All games and dates are subject to change. Stay tuned to RITathletics.com and @RITMHKY on Twitter for the latest information about the team. Visit RITtickets.com for information about tickets as it becomes available.

Atlantic Hockey has changed back to all 11 teams qualifying for the conference postseason tournament, scheduled for the first four weekends in March. The bottom six teams in the final standings will play first-round single games (Mar. 2), before four best-of-three quarterfinal series the following weekend (Mar. 8-10). The four remaining teams will square off in two best-of-three semifinal series (Mar. 15-17), while the Atlantic Hockey Championship game is scheduled for March 23. The higher-seeds will host the lower seeds throughout all games of the tournament. 
 
RIT finished the 2022-23 season with a 25-13-1 record, including an 18-7-1 Atlantic Hockey mark to win the inaugural Robert DeGregorio Trophy, along with its first regular-season championship since 2011. Seeded first for the Atlantic Hockey Tournament, the Tigers swept Mercyhurst in the best-of-three quarterfinal series, before falling to Holy Cross in three games in the semifinals to wrap up the second-winningest Division I-era campaign in program history.