The Tahoe Knight Monsters are one of two new teams entering the ECHL this year, the other being the Bloomington Bison. On Tuesday afternoon, it was announced who the Knight Monsters will play in their first season.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters will open their inaugural season at home against the Jacksonville Icemen on Thursday, October 24, 2024, in the first of a back-to-back two-game set at the Tahoe Blue Event Center. That is a 2,300-mile trip to Tahoe. This will be the only time these two teams face each other all season. This series will be the start of a five-game season-opening homestand. The Icemen grabbed second place in the South Division, getting knocked out by the Florida Everblades in the first round.
The Knight Monsters will then host their mountain division rival, the Idaho Steelheads, come into town for a three-game series. Those games will be the first three of 12 games against the new rivals. Tahoe will host Idaho from October 31-November 2, 2024, and March 26, 28-30, 2025. They will be on the road against Idaho on November 27, 29-30, 2024, and March 14-15, 2025. The Steelheads made the playoffs last year, grabbing second place in the Mountain Division and getting knocked out in the second round by the Kansas City Mavericks.
After their season-opening homestand, the Knight Monsters will travel to the Salt Lake Valley to take on the Utah Grizzlies for two games on Veteran’s Day weekend, November 9th and 10th. It will be the first two of 10 matchups this year. They will also be in Utah December 18, 20-21, 2024, along with April 4-5, 2025. That April series will close out the road schedule for the Tahoe Knight Monsters. The Grizzlies will make their only visit to Tahoe this season for a three-game series on December 12, 14-15, 2024. The December games will be six straight for the teams, so chances are this will likely become a rival sometime in those six games. The Grizzlies just missed out on the playoffs last year on the last day of the regular season.
Following the brief trip to the Maverik Center, Tahoe will return home to start their season series against the Tulsa Oilers in a three-game series on November 13,15-16, 2024. The Oilers grabbed the final Mountain Division, just edging out the Grizzlies for the fourth spot. The next time Tulsa will visit Tahoe will be on December 27-29, 2024. While hosting the Oilers for six, Tahoe will travel to Oklahoma for four games on December 7-8, 2024, and March 21-22, 2025. So overall, the Oilers and Knight Monsters will battle ten times throughout the regular season.
Following the Tulsa series, the Knight Monsters will host the defending Western Conference Champions as the Kansas City Mavericks come into town for three games starting November 20, 2024, and will conclude that first series with the day off on the 21st and two more on November 22-23, 2024. The Mavericks absolutely dominated the ECHL last year, grabbing 114 standing points and claiming the Mountain Division crown as well as the Brabham Cup. That will be the only visit by KC as on January 29, 31, and February 1, 2025, the Knight Monsters will visit Cable Dahmer Arena in Kansas City. Those will be the only six matchups of the year for the two teams.
On December 3-4, 2024, Tahoe will travel to the Lone Star state to take on the Allen Americans. This will be the only visit to Allen, as the teams battled each other just five times this season. Allen finished third in the mountain division, ultimately getting bumped out of the playoffs by the Steelheads in the first round. Allen will make their only visit to Tahoe for a three-game series from February 28 to March 2, 2025.
So, up to this point, we’ve made our way into the new calendar year for new opponents. The Knight Monsters will go on a season-long nine-game road trip as they will first travel to the northeast to take on the Maine Mariners, who got fourth place in the North Division, getting knocked out by the Division champions.. the Adirondack Thunder. It will be the only three games for these two teams as that series will take place January 3-5, 2025.
Following their trip to Maine, Tahoe will travel to the Mount Rushmore area and take on the Rapid City Rush in the first of two series this year for the two teams. On January 10-12, 2025, the Rush will host the Knight Monsters, and on March 6, 8-9, 2025, the Knight Monsters will host Rapid City for a total of six games this season for the two Mountain Division teams. The Rush finished in sixth in the Mountain Division.
Following the trip to Rapid City, Tahoe will travel to Coralville, Iowa, to take on the Heartlanders for a three-game series on January 17-19, 2025. It will be the only time the teams take on each other this season. Iowa finished last in the Central Division and will be looking to take that series to help them get to the playoffs.
Following their nine-game road trip, the Knight Monsters will return home for a quick three-game series against the Fort Wayne Komets. The Komets just missed out on the playoffs last season, grabbing fifth in the Central Division. As with Maine and Iowa, this will be the only series in which the teams battle each other, as the games will take place on January 24-26, 2025.
Tahoe will then go to KC for three, then come back for three more quick games against the North Division Champions as the Adirondack Thunder visit the Lake Tahoe area on February 6-8, 2025. Adirondack got knocked out of the playoffs this past year in the eastern conference finals by the Florida Everblades.
Following those three against Adirondack, Tahoe will go on a six-game road trip, with the first stop being in Wichita. Wichita finished last in the Mountain Division this past season. Tahoe will take on Wichita six times this season, featuring the Thunder hosting the Knight Monsters on February 14-16, 2025, while the Knight Monsters will host Wichita to conclude the season on April 9, 11-12, 2025.
To end the six-game road trip, Tahoe will travel to Southwest Florida to take on the back-to-back defending Kelly Cup Champions as the Everblades host the Knight Monsters on February 19, 21-22, 2025. This will be a very tough series for Tahoe, as the Everblades have been able to keep their main guys for quite a few years now. Florida is currently battling Kansas City in the Kelly Cup Finals and leads the series 2-1 as of when this article was written.
The schedule this year for the Tahoe Knight Monsters will consist of 55 divisional games, six conference games from the Central Division, and 11 eastern conference opponents.
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