They include the Wildcats’ opening series of the season against Massachusetts and the closing series against fellow CCHA member Minnesota State-Mankato.

The season spans 34 games, 16 at home, from the first weekend of October until the final day of February.

The CCHA’s Mason Cup Playoffs commence the weekend after the regular season ends on March 6, with the semifinals one week later and championship game another week after that. An automatic NCAA berth goes to the winner of those playoffs.

With all NMU games played in two-game pairs, each will be held on Friday and Saturday expect for two, one that opens the campaign and the other that opens 2026.

Northern Michigan University’s Matthew Argentina, left, looks to teammate Zach Michaelis, right, after Michaelis passed him the puck to score his second goal of the season during a CCHA game played against St. Thomas at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Once the season starts, the only weekends Northern has off are Nov. 14-15, back-to-back weekends on Dec. 19-20 and 26-27, and also on Jan. 16-17 and Feb. 6-7.

The 26-game league schedule includes four games each against five CCHA clubs — Michigan Tech, Lake Superior State, Minnesota State-Mankato, Bemidji State and Augustana — with only two games apiece against Ferris State, Bowling Green State and St. Thomas.

Mankato was the league’s lone NCAA tourney representative last season, while St. Thomas is in its final season in the conference and will join the National Collegiate Hockey Conference for 2026-27.

The Wildcats’ league slate follows their eight-game nonleague lineup that includes three teams from the NCAA tourney that was held in March and April.

It includes the opening two series on the road, at UMass on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 4-5, and at Ohio State on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 10-11.

The Minutemen, who have become an elite Hockey East squad after winning the NCAA title in 2021 and gaining a berth in five of the last six national tourneys, dispatched Midwest power Minnesota in the first round of this year’s tourney before losing to eventual champion Western Michigan in the regional finals.

Ohio State challenged Michigan State for the Big 10 championship before losing in double overtime in that tourney final, then lost to Boston University in its NCAA opener.

UMass finished No. 10 in the country, OSU at No. 11.

While this will only be the second- and third-ever games between the Wildcats and Minutemen — their only previous meeting was an NMU 3-0 win at the Mariucci Classic in December 1999 in Minneapolis — NMU and Ohio State have a long history from when both teams were members of the original CCHA for much of the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s and through 2013.

Northern has an all-time 38-37-3 record against the Buckeyes, with their most recent games a pair of Wildcat victories, 4-2 and 3-2, in Marquette on Jan. 18-19, 2013.

After opening this season on the road, NMU comes home to host Colorado College of the NCHC on Oct. 17-18. The Wildcats played at CC to open last season as the Tigers were ranked No. 12 nationally then and posted 4-3 overtime and 6-1 wins in Dave Shyiak’s NMU head-coaching debut.

CC finished 18-18-1 last season, bowing out to Denver in three games in their league’s tourney quarterfinals.

Northern completes its nonconference schedule with a second straight series at the Berry Events Center against Michigan State on Oct. 24-25. After having not played the Spartans since 2019, NMU faced No. 1 MSU in its Great Lakes Invitational opener last December and put up a good fight before falling 2-0 in Grand Rapids.

The NCAA tourney favorites were bounced in the first round by Cornell and finished ranked No. 6 at 26-7-4.

The Wildcats then jump into the CCHA schedule, playing seven of their first 10 games on the road.

It starts with an Oct. 31-Nov. 1 series at second-year full conference member Augustana, which NMU lost to in identical 4-1 decisions in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, last November. The Vikings finished runner-up in the regular season last winter playing a limited schedule.

Next is the first of two traditional home-and-home series against Michigan Tech, the Friday opener in Houghton and Saturday contest in Marquette.

Then comes a series at Bemidji State the weekend before Thanksgiving, followed by the Wildcats’ first two-game home series in the league against Mankato on Nov. 28-29.

The Mavericks won both regular season and playoff titles in the league last season, earning the CCHA’s lone bid to the NCAAs. Mankato bowed out in its opener, 2-1 in double OT to eventual champion Western Michigan.

A road series at Bowling Green opens NMU’s schedule in December, with a home series against St. Thomas on Dec. 12-13 leading into the Wildcats’ three-week Christmas break.

Coming out of it on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 3-4, is the first series vs. LSSU, this one in Sault Ste. Marie.

Following in January will be a home series against Augustana, the first time the Vikings will visit Marquette; another home-and-home set vs. MTU, the Friday game at the Berry; and a home series against Bemidji State.

With the first weekend of February off, NMU ends the regular season that month with a road series vs. Ferris, home series vs. LSSU and road pair at Mankato on Feb. 27-28.

Northern is coming off a tough 5-27-2 season, including 4-20-2 in the CCHA, after Shyiak had to cobble together a lineup during the summer after his late-June hire and only four players returning from the year before.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the schedule. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.