ORONO, Maine – The University of Maine men's ice hockey team announced its tentative schedule for the upcoming season on Wednesday, November 11. With 27 games scheduled against Hockey East opponents, 20 will be played as a Hockey East contest, while seven will be counted as non-conference. A bye week and an opt out week are also built into the schedule.
 
The Black Bears open the 2020-21 season with a home series against #7 UMass on Nov. 20-21. The Minutemen won the 2019-20 season series. Maine opens up the road portion of its regular season with four straight away from the Alfond with a pair of games at UConn on Nov. 27-28 and two more at Merrimack on Dec. 4-5.
 
The Black Bears will play their final home games of 2020 with the next chapter of the 'Border Battle' against UNH on Dec. 11-12. Maine hosted and swept the Wildcats last season, highlighted by an OT Pat Shea game winner. The final game of 2020 will be played at UMass Lowell as a non-conference game on Dec. 19.
 
Maine will ring in the new year with a home series against UMass Lowell on Jan. 1-2. Jeremy Swayman and Tyler Wall battled in Lowell last season with the River Hawks taking the series. The first road trip of 2021 will be to Burlington, Vermont (Jan. 8-9). The Black Bears went 3-0 against the Catamounts during the 2019-20 season.
 
Returning to the friendly confines of the Alfond, Maine will host the Providence Friars. On Jan. 15-16, the Black Bears will look to grab another win at home against their conference rival. After playing host, Maine will head down I-95 to Agganis Arena for a two game series against Boston University on Jan. 22-23.
 
The Black Bears will play four straight non-conference games starting with two at UNH (Jan. 29-30) and finishing with two at home against Merrimack (Feb. 5-6).
 
Northeastern will welcome Maine to Matthews Arena for two games on Feb. 12-13. After a bye week, the Black Bears will play two more against the Minutemen (Feb. 26-27). This time the games will be non-conference and the final regular season road games.
 
Maine concludes it's 2020-21 regular season with a home series against Boston College. The Black Bears swept last season's series with the Eagles. Both victories came in over time.

At this point, due to COVID-19 concerns, guidelines and restrictions, UMaine Athletics is not expecting to host spectators at athletic events for the 2020-21 seasons.

Hockey East will once again partner with NESN and ViacomCBS Digital to provide fans across the world the opportunity to view every single Hockey East game in the 2020-21 season. Today, Hockey East announced a slate of games that can be seen on NESN through January 1, as well as news that all other streamed games will be made available to fans for free on one of ViacomCBS Digital's platforms. Full television schedule details and How-To-Watch information about streamed games, as well as specific game times, will be announced in the coming days.

Maine's 27-game schedule remains in flux as local, regional, and national COVID-19 conditions and guidelines change. The University of Maine system will continue to monitor the situation closely.
 
To view the entire schedule, click HERE.
 
-UMaine-