With the start of the 2026-27 men’s hockey season here, we now have the full picture of what this version of the Wisconsin Badgers will face over the next few months. The official schedule was unveiled on September 18, a couple of weeks ahead of Wisconsin’s season opener against Robert Morris at the Kohl Center on October 2.
The Badgers have a light non-conference schedule to start the year beginning with the Robert Morris series, followed by a trip to Mankato to take on No. 18 Minnesota State on October 9-10 before a three-week break to gear up for conference play. Wisconsin will play an exhibition game against Western Michigan on October 24, with the next official series coming with Notre Dame’s trip to Madison on October 30.
The Big Ten season can be tumultuous, but Wisconsin has a fairly favorable draw for the first half of the season. The Badgers won’t see either of the Michigan teams until they travel to Ann Arbor to face current No. 2 Michigan on December 4-5. No. 3 Michigan State doesn’t appear on the schedule for the first time until they visit the Kohl Center on January 8-9.
Wisconsin will open conference play with Notre Dame, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Penn State, with the Gopher series being the only road trip. With all the early home cooking, the Badgers will have every opportunity to get off to a hot start in conference play.
Notre Dame was a bottom feeder in the Big Ten last year, and neither Minnesota nor Ohio State were much better. Penn State finished third in the standings and eked out Wisconsin by two points, but lost top-pick Gavin McKenna to the NHL and J.J. Wiebusch, one of their top forwards, to Wisconsin in the transfer portal.
After Thanksgiving, the Badgers will welcome Canisius and Omaha to the Kohl Center, sandwiched around their trip to Michigan to take on the Wolverines. The early first half of the season is very friendly to Wisconsin, and if this team wants to contend for the regular season conference title, they will likely need to end 2026 at the top of the Big Ten standings.
Wisconsin will participate in the sixth-annual Kwik Trip Holiday Faceoff to close 2026, playing their opening game against Northern Michigan before meeting either No. 10 Massachusetts or Arizona State in the following game, their last before hosting Michigan State to kick off 2027.
Speaking of 2027, the second half of the Wisconsin schedule sees the Badgers hit the road for most of the year. Following the Michigan State series, Wisconsin plays three of their next four series on the road, heading to Penn State and Ohio State before hosting Minnesota, and then off to East Lansing.
Michigan comes to town on February 18 for the final home game of the regular season, a rare Thursday night game thanks to Lambeau Field hosting the Frozen Tundra Faceoff, an outdoor game between the two teams on Saturday, February 20.
Wisconsin will get a bye week before closing the regular season with a trip to South Bend to play Notre Dame on March 4-5.
There are no easy weeks in the Big Ten, even the worst teams will clip you any given day if you’re not ready to play. That being said, Wisconsin has a real chance to build some momentum before they need to see any of the current heavyweights away from home. Last year’s team played three of their first five conference series on the road, two of which came against the top two teams in the country. They won’t face anything like that until their December trip to Ann Arbor this time around.
Establishing a cushion before things really heat up in January will be paramount to any hopes Wisconsin has of finishing atop the Big Ten when all is said and done; however, the Badgers are not strangers to playing well away from home. The team went 10-7-2 at home last year while going 10-4 on the road, so the heavy travel schedule from January through March might not be as daunting as it looks, but playing on the road isn’t as concerning as the time and energy spent traveling nearly every week.
The games against Michigan and Michigan State will go a long way toward determining a regular season Big Ten champion, but as we’ve seen in years past, teams out of the mix are always happy to play spoiler. If Wisconsin doesn’t take care of business against teams like Notre Dame and Ohio State, they’ll find themselves looking up at either the Spartans or the Wolverines when all is said and done.
Last year’s Badgers went 4-4 against the Michigan teams, yet finished 10 points behind Michigan and 12 points behind Michigan State, the regular season champions. Wisconsin’s fourth-place finish was due to splitting their games against Minnesota, Penn State, and Ohio State, teams they’ll need to fare better against if they plan on pushing for a conference title.
With the short non-conference schedule to open the season and the lengthy break, there’s no doubt Wisconsin should be fresh when Big Ten play begins. And with the holiday break for exams, the schedule really doesn’t get stressful until late January. The Badgers will have every opportunity to make a strong statement and build on their run to the NCAA title game last year, and it starts in earnest tonight.
