Vermont delays start of its hockey season

Vermont announced late on Sunday that it will delay the start of its hockey and basketball seasons until Dec. 18 due an uptick in COVID cases across the state.

"After discussions with President Garimella and the Vermont Department of Health, it became clear that delaying the start of our seasons was the most responsible course of action,” said UVM Director of Athletics Jeff Schulman. "Our state is obviously seeing a significant increase in COVID-19 cases and it's important that our programs are operating in a manner that is consistent with guidance from state officials. I certainly feel for our student-athletes, coaches and staff who have been following strict protocols in preparing for a return to competition. Moving forward, we will make every effort to play out our competitive schedules while always prioritizing the health and wellbeing of our student-athletes, as well as that of our campus and community."

Vermont was scheduled to play eight games prior to Dec. 18. Nothing has been announced on the status of those games. Hockey East had non-conference weekends built-in to the schedule in February for makeups, but there are only six makeup dates scheduled and UVM will now have to reschedule eight games.

UVM was scheduled to host UConn on Nov. 20-21 and then travel to UMass on Nov. 27-28. The Catamounts were scheduled to host BU on Dec. 4-5 and travel to Lowell on Dec. 12-13. All of those games are now postponed. 

Unless makeups are worked into the schedule, UVM is not scheduled to play until Dec. 26 at home against Northeastern.