Last season, the Boston University women’s hockey team left its non-conference schedule with proof it could hang with the best teams in the country. This season, the Terriers have the chance to actually beat them.
BU will open 2025-26 hosting six-time national champion Minnesota for a weekend series before traveling to ECAC powerhouse Colgate for two games the week after. Both the Golden Gophers (four straight appearances) and Raiders (five) are NCAA tournament mainstays.
Whereas BU was competitive in two losses at Minnesota last October, returning home with a critical dose of confidence to begin a resurgent season, this October, the reigning Hockey East champions could put a signature win on their resume.
And that’s just the first two weeks of a regular season that includes a matchup with an archrival at Agganis Arena, a trip to Northern Ireland and a daunting final month.
The full 2025-26 BU women’s hockey schedule breakdown, below.
The schedule
The biggest games to watch
Vs. Minnesota, October 3 and October 4
BU went to St. Paul last October with house money. The Terriers very nearly stole a game from the No. 2 team in the country, a pivotal dose of confidence right at the start of the year, and the rest is history. By the time the Terriers won Hockey East, it was worth wondering: could BU have actually beaten Minnesota had they played at the end of the season, not during the infancy of the program’s revival?
This October, we’ll get our answer — sort of. The Gophers, coming off another Frozen Four appearance, will surely be a top 5 team in the nation when they travel to Wally B. The Terriers lost a ton of experienced contributors, so they likely won’t be as good to start 2025-26 as they were to finish 2024-25. Still, the program’s stated goal is to sustain competitiveness on the national stage. Tara Watchorn and Co. took an enormous first step on that journey last season; now we’ll see if they can take another.
What a way to start the year.
At Colgate, October 10 and October 11
There isn’t a greater indicator on BU’s schedule of the progress made under Watchorn than this series. A year ago, the Terriers’ second non-conference series was at Syracuse, an AHA cellar-dweller. This year it’s at Colgate, which has won four of the last five ECAC titles and just graduated the PWHL’s draft No. 1 pick.
The Raiders will also likely be a top 5 team, or at least be ranked in the top 10, when BU makes the trip to Hamilton, N.Y. That means the Terriers could have four chances at their first top 10 victory since 2021.
Vs. Boston College, November 14 (at Agganis Arena)
BU broke a women’s hockey attendance record last November when BC came to Agganis Arena for a Friday primetime matchup, and even after the women moved back into Wally B, the school is running it back this year.
The BU men will be out of town, so this matchup — a Friday series finale this time, after a Thursday night opener at BC — will be in primetime again. And, of course, the Green Line Rivalry will be a big early-season test. The Terriers were 3-1 against the Eagles last year.
Vs. Minnesota-Duluth/Quinnipiac/Harvard, Friendship Four, January 2 and January 3 (in Belfast, Northern Ireland)
A season after the BU men won the Belpot, the Terrier women will hop across the pond for the Friendship Four’s inaugural women’s tournament. That’s significant enough in its own right — but BU’s competition in Belfast, Northern Ireland offers another big non-conference test.
Duluth is a blue-blood, one of only five programs with a national championship. The Bulldogs made their fifth consecutive NCAA tournament last season. Quinnipiac is no joke either; the Bobcats finished fifth in the ECAC and 10th in USCHO’s final poll in 2024-25 (and they’ll feature Alex Law, a BU transfer).
No matter what, the Terriers will face one of those teams, and they could face both.
At Northeastern, vs. UConn, vs. Providence, at Boston College, February 13 through February 21
This is a gauntlet. To finish the regular season, BU will face each of its fellow top-five Hockey East teams. If the league standings are as jammed as they were at the end of last year, these games will be enormous.
The Terriers got their toughest Hockey East test at the very end last season and were swept by UConn to lose the regular season title. They’ll get an even tougher one to conclude 2025-26.
Other games to pay attention to
Vs./at Northeastern, October 31 and November 1
Death, taxes, and BU and Northeastern women’s hockey playing a home-and-home series in October. 2025-26 will be the third straight year it’s happened.
The Terriers, at long last, got the best of the Huskies last season. But Northeastern still made its ninth consecutive Hockey East final and will surely be a contender again. This series will be a great measuring stick for each program.
Vs. Northeastern, Beanpot semifinal, January 13 (at Walter Brown Arena)
BU’s website confirms that Wally B will indeed be the host of the Beanpot semis, which makes sense, given it was BU’s turn to host last year, but it couldn’t because of the renovations.
In any case, BU still couldn’t conquer Northeastern in the 2025 final at TD Garden, and now the Terriers get the Huskies’ Beanpot dynasty in the semi. BU won its only Beanpot as a varsity program in 2018.
