The North American Hockey League (NAHL) released the regular season schedules for each of its 29 teams playing in the 2021-22 season on Tuesday.
The Jets will play 60 regular season games, which includes four at the annual NAHL Showcase in September. Janesville’s 13th season is set to kick off against the rival Springfield Jr. Blues on Friday, Sept. 10.
Also included in the Jets schedule is the NAHL Top Prospects tournament, which is set for Feb. 6-8, 2022.
Janesville’s schedule is comprised entirely of Midwest Division games, with Springfield resuming action after opting out of the 2020-21 season, the Minnesota Wilderness joining the Midwest from the Central, and the Anchorage Wolverines kicking off their first NAHL season. The Jets will enter the season as the 2021 Midwest Division regular season champions.
The team will play two series in September at home, with the season opener against Springfield Sept. 10 and 11 and two games against Fairbanks on Sept. 24 and 25.
The Jets then hit the road for the entire month of October and early November with a Midwest tour against the Minnesota Wilderness (Oct.1-2, Oct 22-23) and Minnesota Magicians (Oct. 8-9), and then for a short stint in Alaska to face off against the Anchorage Wolverines (Oct. 29-30) and a three-game slate with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs (Nov. 4-6). It is the debut season for the Wolverines, and will be Janesville’s first trip there to play the Midwest Division opponent.
Janesville almost exclusively plays at home through November and December, with action against the Wilderness (Nov. 12-13), Magicians (Nov. 19-20, Nov. 26-27), and Ice Dogs (Dec. 17-18). The Jets travel to Springfield for a series with the Jr. Blues Dec. 3-4.
The team rings in 2022 at home with a three-game showdown against the Anchorage Wolverines Dec. 30-31and Jan. 1. It will be their first trip to Janesville in team history. The following weekend, Jan. 6-8, the Kenai River Brown Bears come to town for the first non-Showcase meetings between the two.
The Jets then spend the remainder of January outside of the lower 48. First though, they’ll kick off the battle for the Blain’s America’s Dairyland Milk Can Trophy, given to the winner of the season series against the Chippewa Steel with a game in Chippewa on Jan. 14. For the Alaska trip, Janesville will stop in Kenai first, for three games on Jan. 21-23 and then head to Anchorage for two on Jan. 28-29.
The team will get a bit of a break from there, with just the Top Prospects Tournament on the docket Feb. 4-6. The Jets head back to Chippewa with one game on Feb. 12.
Then comes a long-awaited home stint for Janesville, with series against Springfield (Feb. 18-19) and Chippewa (Feb. 25-26). The team then has a home-and-home with the Steel to kick off March, with the first game (March 4) in Janesville and the second (March 5) in Chippewa. In a similar pattern, the Jets host Springfield March 11-12 and have another home-and-home with Chippewa March 18-19, this time with Friday’s game away and Saturday’s at home.
The last weekend of March and first of April will be another Minnesota tour for the Jets as they head to Cloquet to play the Wilderness March 25-26 and Magicians in Richfield April 1-2.
Janesville hosts its last home series of the regular season April 8 and 9 against the Wilderness.
The team closes the regular season as they will begin it, against the Jr. Blues, on April 15-16, in Springfield.
The Jets will see the Jr. Blues and the Wilderness the most in regular season action, with 10 meetings each on the schedule.
A notable change this season is that the Jets will make two trips to Alaska, each two weeks long, in late October/early November and in late January, rather than the one longer trip that the team usually takes. The lengthiest road stretch for Janesville will be spread over one month and 11 games Oct. 1-Nov. 6, and the longest home streak is eight games from Dec. 17-Jan. 8.
A full promotional schedule is soon to come. All NAHL games will be broadcast live on HockeyTV.com, and fans can contact the Jets front office at 608-752-JETS for more information regarding the upcoming season, including tickets.