The Three Rivers Classic will be going on hiatus for the 2019-20 hockey season, but the Robert Morris women will be holding a four-team tournament over the holidays instead, the team announced as part of its schedule release on Friday.
Robert Morris will host Colgate, Northeastern and Wisconsin in a two-day tournament at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Township on January 4-5. Robert Morris will play Wisconsin and Colgate will play Northeastern on Saturday, with the winners and losers of each semi-final game meeting on Sunday.
The field is a packed one, as the Badgers are the reigning national champions after being rival Minnesota 2-0 in March to claim the 2019 women’s Frozen Four title. Northeastern also made the NCAA Tournament as the No. 3 seed, but was upset by Cornell in the quarterfinals. Colgate finished the 2018-19 season ranked No. 10 in the USCHO.com poll, while Robert Morris won the College Hockey America regular season title for the third consecutive season.
The rest of RMU’s non-conference schedule is equally as challenging. The Colonials will host national runners-up and No. 2-ranked Minnesota on Oct. 11-12, No. 3 Clarkson on Oct. 18-18 and visit No. 4 Cornell Oct. 25-26.
That will make eight games against the teams that finished in the top 10 of the end-of-season USCHO.com poll, with guaranteed matchups against each of the first four teams.
The rest of the non-conference schedule will feature a visit from Union on Sept. 27-28 to open the regular season and trips to RPR on Nov. 22-23 and St. Lawrence on Nov. 29-30.
Conference play will start on Nov. 1-2, when Penn State comes to RMU Island Sports Center, and the season will end with a trip to Syracuse Feb. 28-29.
The 2020 CHA Tournament will take place March 5-7 at Buffalo’s HarborCenter.
The full RMU schedule can be found here: https://rmucolonials.com/schedule.aspx?path=whockey&schedule=255
