Sioux to continue series with Gophers

Here is some good news for Sioux fans. If Roman’s blog is right the Sioux and the Gophers will continue to play each other after they both go their separate ways.

SCHEDULE UPDATE

Lucia said he is happy North Dakota is playing the Gophers at Mariucci Arena. The Gophers have played nine of the last 11 games in the series at the Ralph. That's partly because Minnesota had to travel there for a three-game, first round WCHA playoff series at the end of the 2009-10 season.

Lucia said he hopes to play North Dakota when the Gophers join the Big Ten Conference in 2014-15 and the Fighting Sioux become members of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. But how often will depend on how many conference games the NCHC will play. The new conference could play up to 28 league games, he said, leaving room to schedule only six nonconference games.

He said the Gophers and the Fighting Sioux would play at Mariucci one year and at the Ralph the other in any scheduling arrangement they make after they are in different conferences.

Boston College coach Jerry York e-mailed Lucia about a fourth-year scheduling agreement. One year, the Gophers would head East and play Boston College and Boston University the same weekend, Lucia said, the next year, Boston College would play at Mariucci, then the Gophers would play at BU and BC and, in the fourth year, BU would visit the Gophers.

Lucia said the Gophers and Notre Dame have discussed playing each other, too. The Irish and Gophers play one game, the U.S. Hall of Fame Game, in early January this season.