UAH at No. 8 Notre Dame
WHEN	Friday, Oct. 6 at 6:35 p.m. CT | Saturday, Oct. 7 at 6:05 p.m. CT
WHERE	Notre Dame, Ind. | Compton Family Ice Arena
LINKS	Live Stats | Live Video | Game Notes
SOCIAL MEDIA	Twitter (@GameDayUAH)

OPENING WEEKEND: UAH opens its 2017-18 season on the road for the initial four series beginning this Friday and Saturday at 2017 NCAA Frozen Four-qualifier No. 8 Notre Dame at the Compton Family Ice Arena with puck drop slated for 6:35 p.m. CT for the opener and 6:05 p.m. for the finale. The Chargers owned an overall record of 9-22-3 last season and 9-16-3 within the WCHA, while UND boasted an overall mark of 23-12-5 and 12-6-4 during the Hockey East schedule in 2016-17.
 
REACHING A MILESTONE: Friday's season opener will be the UAH hockey's 1000th varsity game as the program owns a historical record of 434-493-72 (.470) since joining the NCAA ranks in 1986. Soon after UAH officially sponsoring the program as an NCAA sport, Huntsville garnered the moniker "The Hockey Capital of the South" as decreed by gubernatorial proclamation in 1987 and the program's reputation continued to rise in the years to follow with NCAA Division II Championships in the 1995-96 and 1997-98 campaigns.
 
CAMPAIGN AHEAD: UAH has a total of 34 games on the 2017-18 slate beginning at Notre Dame this coming weekend, which starts a four-series road trip as the squad has trips to Michigan Tech (Oct. 20-21), Cornell (Oct. 27-28) and Arizona State (Nov. 3-4) following the season-opening series. The Chargers open their seven-series home slate on Nov. 10-11 when Alaska Anchorage makes the trek from the Last Frontier.
 
LOOKING BACK: The Chargers are coming off their strongest campaign as members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, as the squad went 9-22-3 overall and 9-16-3 in league play in 2015-16 which included three road series sweeps. UAH garnered its first All-WCHA honoree following the season with Kurt Gosselin being named to the Third Team after posting 18 points on nine goals and nine assists from the blue line.
 
RETURNING PRODUCTION: UAH rates 10th nationally entering the new season with 87 percent of its scoring returning from the 2016-17 season, which was led by Huntsville native Josh Kestner with a career-best 22 points from nine goals and 13 assists. UAH boasted a total of nine players with 10 points or more last season, with eight of the nine Chargers returning for 2017-18.
 
OFFENSE FROM DEFENSE: The squad benefitted from strong performances from the blue line as three of its top five point scorers were defensemen, which included Cam Knight (3g-16a), Gosselin (9g-9a) and Brandon Parker (6g-9a). UAH returns all but one defensemen from the 2016-17 squad.
 
BREAKOUT BLUE LINER: Cam Knight finished his sophomore season in 2016-17 ranked tied for eighth among WCHA blue liners with a career-best and team-high 16 assists in addition to rating tied for second on the UAH roster with 19 points. Knight's 19 points (3g-16a) were the most for a UAH defenseman since Matt Baxter's 22 in 2010-11 and his 16 assists were the most for a Charger defenseman since Brandon Roshko's 17 in 2007-08.
 
FIGHTING KNIGHTS PROFILE: Notre Dame - playing in its first season in the Big Ten - is coming off an impressive run in the NCAA tournament last season in which the squad reached the Frozen Four, while posting a 23-12-5 overall record and a 12-6-4 mark within Hockey East contests. The Fighting Irish return two of their top three point leaders in Jake Evans (13-29—42) and Andrew Oglevie (21-20—41), while head coach Jeff Jackson will count on three underclassmen at goalie in sophomore Cale Morris and freshmen Dylan St. Cyr and Nick Sanford.
 
SERIES HISTORY: The Chargers enter this weekend's matchup with an all-time record of 6-10-0 against the Fighting Knights, with Notre Dame notching a 5-0 win on Jan. 11, 2014 in the two program's most recent meeting.