WORCESTER, Mass. – Head women's hockey coach Katie Lachapelle has announced the team's schedule for the 2020-21 season. The Crusaders will play a 24-game slate, with 18 of those matchups counting towards the conference standings.

Each of the 10 women's programs will compete in 18 games that will count toward the final Army ROTC Hockey East Regular Season Standings to determine the 2020-21 Hockey East Regular Season Champion.

Three of the final five weekends of regular season play are designated as Flex Weekends. These Flex Weekend contests are tentative and opponents may be adjusted in order to maintain a competitively balanced schedule for each team. If games are postponed during the regular season, these Flex Weekend games will be rescheduled with those postponed games. Any games played during Flex Weekends will be designated as "non-conference" games and will not count toward the Army ROTC Hockey East Standings.

"We are extremely excited to have our schedule in place," Lachapelle said. "We are so thankful for everyone at Hockey East and within the Return to Play Task Force for getting us to this point. We can't thank Marcus Blossom, Rose Shea and the Holy Cross community enough for the care and concern they have shown our student-athletes over the last couple of months. 

"Our young women are extremely excited to get going and have done an amazing job of keeping themselves in the position to be able to play. I can't wait to see the giant smiles on their faces when they put those game jerseys on next Friday!"

To start the 2020-21 campaign, all games at the Hart Center will be played without fans in attendance. The situation will continue to be evaluated based on state, league and institutional policies as the season progresses. Fans will be able to stream games live on CBS All-Access.

The Crusaders kick off their season on Nov. 20 and 21 with a pair of home games against Maine. Following the opening weekend, the team will play three home-and-home series with New Hampshire (Nov. 27-28), Providence (Dec. 4-5), and Merrimack (Dec. 11-12).

To start 2021, Holy Cross will travel to Vermont for a pair of games on Jan. 1 and 2. January will feature three home-and-home series as well including contests with Boston College (Jan. 15-16), Northeastern (Jan. 22-23), and Boston University (Jan. 29-30).

The team will then enter the Flex Weekend portion of their schedule with a home-and-home with Boston College (Feb. 5 & 7), two games at Maine (Feb. 12-13), and a home-and-home with New Hampshire (Feb. 19-20). These games will not count towards the conference standings.

The Crusaders will then return to regular conference play with a final home-and-home with Connecticut (Feb. 26-27).

The Hockey East Tournament will begin on March 2 with the quarterfinal round. The semifinal and championship round will play out over the weekend of March 6.

All dates and opponents are subject to change. To view the full schedule, click here.