ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men's hockey team announced Tuesday its schedule for the upcoming 2018-19 season, including non-conference visits from Michigan State and Arizona State, the highly anticipated matchup with Harvard in The Frozen Apple and the perennial rigors of an ECAC Hockey slate that concludes with a trip to the North Country.
 
Fresh off the program's 22nd Ivy League championship and its 21st berth in the NCAA championships, the Big Red will start off with a four-game home stand at Lynah Rink. The campaign starts with a two-game non-league series Oct. 26-27 against Michigan State in the programs' first meeting since 2005. Cornell then opens league play Friday, Nov. 2 at against Yale and Saturday, Nov. 3 vs. Brown.
 
The following weekend features Cornell's only two true road games outside of league competition. The two games Nov. 9-10 at Northern Michigan will mark the program's first-ever trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the regular season. The teams have met as recently as Dec. 28, 2016 in the Florida College Hockey Classic – a 5-2 Cornell victory – but the Wildcats made notable strides under first-year head coach Grant Potulny in 2017-18 and advanced as far as the WCHA championship game. The only other time the Big Red has visited Northern Michigan was for an NCAA quarterfinal series in 1981.
 
Cornell returns home for ECAC Hockey playoff rematches the following weekend. The Big Red hosts Quinnipiac on Friday, Nov. 16 in the teams' first meeting since Cornell's two-game sweep of 9-1 and 2-0 in a quarterfinal series in March. Defending champion Princeton visits on Saturday, Nov. 17 in a rematch of a semifinal in Lake Placid.
 
The fourth rendition of The Frozen Apple is proving to be the most anticipated yet, with Cornell set to battle with rival Harvard at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 24 at The World's Most Famous Arena in New York. The Big Red is a perfect 3-0 in previous chapters of The Frozen Apple, defeating Michigan (2012), Penn State (2014) and New Hampshire (2016). Though an ECAC Hockey opponent, the game is a non-league affair.
 
Cornell will see Harvard again exactly one week later on Dec. 1 in Cambridge, Mass., closing out the fall portion of the schedule after a visit to Ivy League rival Dartmouth the night prior.
 
After a 33-day hiatus for final exams and the semseter break, the Big Red will make an ECAC Hockey road trip to start the new year with visits to Princeton (Jan. 4) and Quinnipiac (Jan. 5). This season will mark the first in which Cornell doesn't play in late December since 1999.
 
The Big Red's final non-league games in the regular season will come against Division I's newest team, Arizona State. The Sun Devils visit Ithaca for a pair of games Jan. 11-12 before Cornell turns its attention back to ECAC Hockey play for the final 14 contests on its slate. The four-game home stand closes out the following weekend against Harvard (Friday, Jan. 18) and Dartmouth (Saturday, Jan. 19).
 
The annual series against Colgate will once again be contested as a home-and-home, first on Friday, Jan. 25 at Class of 1965 Arena in Hamilton before shifting back to Lynah Rink on Saturday, Jan. 26. For a third straight year, Cornell will play both sets of games against both Union and Rensselaer in February — the Big Red visits the Capital District Feb. 1-2 before playing host Feb. 22-23. Cornell's Senior Night will be the latter evening against Union.
 
Cornell also plays both of its season series against Clarkson and St. Lawrence late in the season. The teams play in Ithaca on Feb. 8-9 before the regular-season finale March 1-2 in the North Country. The defending Ivy League champion Big Red plays its final Ancient Eight games of the season Feb. 15-16, traveling to Brown and Yale.
 
As usual, Cornell will tune up with a pair of exhibitions against Canadian universities before the start of the regular season. Laurentian visits at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13 and Guelph returns to Ithaca for a second straight year at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 21. A date for the Red/White Game is expected to be finalized at a later date.
 
Also announced Tuesday will be an adjustment in seating assignments at Lynah Rink for season ticket holders and visiting teams. A video explaining the changes is available here.