Boston College Hockey To Host Wisconsin In 2013-14

Madison.com's Andy Baggot is reporting that the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team will travel to Boston to take on both Boston College and Boston University next season.

In addition to playing 20 Big Ten games in 2013-14 - home-and-home series with the other five members - the Badgers have scheduled non-league series with Alabama-Huntsville (home), Alaska-Anchorage (home), Colorado College (home), Lake Superior State (home), Miami (away) and Northern Michigan (home). In addition, UW will play single road games at Boston College and Boston University.

Starting next season, both powerhouse men's hockey programs will be looking to fill the schedule with a larger number of non-conference games than usual. The Badgers will join the Big Ten Hockey Conference in 2013-14, giving the program up to 14 non-conference dates to fill. Boston College will be in a similar position. When Notre Dame joins, the league will pare down the league schedule to just 20 games - two games against the other 10 members - leaving the Eagles with up to 14 non-conference dates a year.

The Badgers and Eagles are certainly no strangers to one another. The two programs have faced each other a total of 21 times with BC owning a 12-9 edge in the all-time series. The Eagles last faced the Badgers in the 2010 National Championship game, shutting out the Badgers 5-0 to capture the program's fourth title. BC last hosted Wisconsin at Conte Forum to start the 2008-09 season, a 5-4 victory for the Eagles.

This season, Coach Eaves has the Badgers on a 10-1-3 hot streak over the last 14 games. Still, Wisconsin is currently on the outside of the National Tournament picture looking in, in no small part due to the program's poor 1-7-2 start to the year.

I imagine we'll be seeing more of the Badgers with the newly found non-conference scheduling freedom both programs will enjoy starting next season.