EAST LANSING— The 2021-22 Michigan State hockey schedule has been finalized.

The Spartans are set to open the regular season with a brief two-game home series against Air Force on Oct. 8-9. They will then host Miami (Ohio) from Oct. 15-16 before heading out on an extensive road trip that includes visits to UMass Lowell on Oct. 22-23 and Ohio State on Oct. 29-30, a team that the Spartans went 2-2 against last season.

MSU will return home during the first weekend in November to square off against archival Michigan before hosting Ferris State on Nov. 11.

The rest of the season schedule is listed below (away games are bolded):

Nov. 13: @Ferris State         

Nov. 19: vs. Wisconsin

Nov. 20: vs. Wisconsin

Dec. 3: @Penn State            

Dec. 4: @Penn State               

Dec. 10: @Notre Dame        

Dec. 11: @Notre Dame

Dec. 29: vs. Western Michigan

Dec. 30: vs. Michigan Tech

Jan. 7: vs. Minnesota

Jan. 8: vs. Minnesota

Jan. 14: @Wisconsin

Jan. 15: @Wisconsin

Jan. 21: vs. Ohio State

Jan. 22: vs. Ohio State

Feb. 4: @Minnesota 

Feb. 5: @Minnesota 

Feb. 11: vs. Michigan

Feb. 12: vs. Michigan

Feb. 18: vs Notre Dame

Feb. 19: vs. Notre Dame

Feb. 25: vs. Penn State

Feb. 26: vs. Penn State

The location for the two-game series between MSU and Michigan on Feb. 11-12 has yet to be determined. In addition, with the exception of the Oct. 22-23 games against UMass Lowell, which will be played at 7:15 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. respectively, and the Nov. 13 contest against Ferris State (7:05), no game times have yet been released.

The Spartans, and fifth year head coach Danton Cole, will try to improve on a disappointing 2020-21 campaign that saw them only manage a 7-18-2 overall record, as well as a 5-16-1 conference record, good for last place in the conference. Michigan State has only managed one winning season since 2009-10; in 2014-15 the Spartans went 17-16-2 with a 11-7-2-2 record in Big ten play.