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Weekly Roundup: UConn's non-conference schedule still leaves a lot to be desired

The Huskies rarely play anyone all that exciting in non-conference play.

This past week, an early version of UConn men’s hockey’s 2021-22 home schedule leaked. Though it’s not finalized, it revealed part of the Huskies’ non-conference slate: AIC, Colgate, and Sacred Heart.

We won’t know the rest until the full schedule is released, though UConn was supposed to host both Ohio State and Arizona State last season for a pair of games each. Depending on how those series were scheduled, the Huskies could be traveling to one or both of those schools.

UConn also plays in one or two tournaments each year, often around the holidays. This year, the Huskies were supposed to play in the Holiday Face-Off in Milwaukee with Arizona State, Clarkson, and Wisconsin before the pandemic intervened. During the last normal season in 2019-20, they faced St. Lawrence and Dartmouth in the Ledyard Classic, hosted by Dartmouth.

All in all, UConn’s non-conference slate — especially at home — feels rather underwhelming. Though Sacred Heart makes sense as an in-state rival (especially since the two teams can’t meet in the first round of CT Ice), AIC and Colgate aren’t exactly exciting opponents.

While the Huskies will play plenty of good teams in Hockey East at the XL Center, they could do better with their non-conference slate.

Since moving to Hockey East in 2014, UConn has played Sacred Heart every season (aside from this year), followed by five matchups with Quinnipiac and RPI, four games against Brown and Army, three meetings with Colgate, two each against AIC and RIT as well as one against Yale and Colorado College — excluding tournaments.

The Huskies have also played two weekend series with Ohio State, Miami (OH), and Alabama Huntsville as well as one series against Arizona State and Penn State.

By conference, that is 18 games against ECAC teams, 15 games against Atlantic Hockey, five vs. the NCHC, and four against Big 10 teams. UConn hasn’t played a WCHA/CCHA school outside of tournament play.

While it makes sense for the Huskies to play local opponents on a more frequent basis because most of those trips can be made in a day which keeps travel costs down, it wouldn’t hurt to have a more unique opponent or two mixed in.

The Ohio State series is a good example of that. While it might not be the biggest name in college hockey, it’s a good opponent from a good conference that casual fans would recognize. The same goes for pretty much the entire Big Ten.

It would also be fun to see how UConn stacks up against one of the top teams out west like Denver, one of the Minnesota schools, or North Dakota. Granted, it may be tough to convince any of them to travel this far to play the Huskies instead of someone like BC, BU, or UMass but maybe the new arena can change that. Either way, those teams would all offer a great experience for a UConn team with sights on becoming a perennial NCAA Tournament squad.

Obviously, there are far fewer non-conference options in college hockey with only 60 teams compared to 130 in FBS or 350 in college basketball. Even with that, the Huskies should be able to get a little more creative with their out-of-conference slate instead of cycling through the same second-rate programs in the northeast year after year.