The Penn State men’s hockey team will be hosting Michigan State this weekend in the first-ever outdoor men’s hockey game at Beaver Stadium. The Penn State men’s hockey team participated in the Frozen Confines series last season at Wrigley Field in Chicago. While that was technically the first outdoor stadium game played by the Penn State Division I men’s hockey team, it wasn’t the first time a men’s hockey team from Penn State played outdoor hockey in a stadium. On January 4, 2012, a season before Penn State launched Division I hockey, the Penn State men’s club hockey team played Neumann University at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia as part of the fifth annual Winter Classic.
The 2012 game was officially an exhibition game between the Penn State Icers and the Neumann University Knights, a Division III team from nearby Aston, Pennsylvania. The Knights opened up the scoring with two goals in the first frame. Penn State answered back with a goal early in the second period. Neumann broke it open with a 4-1 score that ultimately proved to be too big of a deficit for Penn State. An announced crowd of 6,800 fans saw Neumann win the game 6-3.
Penn State played its first Division I hockey game just 282 days after this outdoor hockey game. The head coach of that new Division I team, Guy Gadowsky, coached the ACHA DI club team the season beforehand. There were players who participated for both programs as well, but Gadowsky is the one constant throughout all of this. By the time the upcoming outdoor game wraps up at Beaver Stadium, he will have coached three outdoor stadium hockey games for Penn State.
Photo Credit: Screenshots from the Penn State Hockey production.
The first time Holy Cross men’s hockey traveled west to the U.S. Air Force Academy was during the 1992-93 season. Presently, the Crusaders and Falcons are division foes within Atlantic Hockey America in Division I. But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, this first game from 1993 is unique in that not only were these two programs not in the same conference at the time of this first game, they weren’t even in the same division. Air Force introduced hockey in 1968 and has played at the highest level since. At the time of this series, the Falcons were an independent hockey program. Holy Cross, on the other hand, debuted hockey within the College Division in 1966 and was later classified as a Division II hockey program when the NCAA switched to a three-tier system in 1973. The Crusaders moved to ECAC East in Division III prior to the 1984-85 season. When Holy Cross played Air Force the first weekend of February 1993, the team was playing two Divisions above its standard competition.
The first game of the series was Friday, February 5, 1993. The Crusaders put up a good fight but lost 4-3. The floodgates opened the next night as the home team won again; this time by a score of 8-0. Unfortunately for Air Force, this was the last game the team would win during the season. It dropped its five remaining contests to Alaska, Colorado College, and Alaska Anchorage. Holy Cross later missed out on the ECAC East tournament as the Crusaders barely finished outside the top 8 of the conference standings in tenth place out of 19 teams.
Flash forward more than thirty years and these two programs will meet twice this weekend in what will be the 66th and 67th hockey games in the all-time series. Holy Cross holds the slight edge with a 27-24-14 record. A lot has changed since that first meeting between a Division I independent and Division III team. The hockey programs may have taken different paths to get to where they are today, but they are now on equal ground within the highest division in NCAA men’s hockey.
Photo Credit: Air Force sophomore Dan MacAllister battles with a Holy Cross player. 1993 Air Force Polaris Yearbook.
The National Hockey League premiered Wednesday, December 19, 1917. Two hockey games were held that night. The NHL started out with four teams, so the entirety of the league was in action. The Montreal Wanderers hosted Toronto while the other game was played in Ottawa. One of the skaters on the Montreal roster included a former Dartmouth hockey star by the name of Gerry Geran. The Wanderers defeated Toronto 10-9 in what is now known as the very first game in NHL history. The other game between the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators was scheduled to start 15 minutes later. Geran didn’t make it on the score sheet that night, but he will be forever remembered as not only the first former college hockey player to suit up for the NHL, but the first U.S. born player to ever do so.
Geran was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and earned the nickname of the Mystery Man of Hockey. One of the reasons behind this nickname is because he was mysteriously suspended by Dartmouth despite being one of the most talented players on the team. After Dartmouth, Geran played amateur hockey and then signed with Montreal in the NHL. However, the team only played six games before being disbanded, finishing with a 1-5 record. The lone win coming on opening night. The Wanderers home rink burnt down in early January 1918, ending the team’s season and forcing it to disband. This wasn’t an end to an upstart expansion team; the Wanderers had been around since 1904, playing in previous leagues and associations. In fact, the Wanderers had won the Stanley Cup four times (1906, 1907, 1908, 1910).
The following season, Geran went back to amateur hockey and then later played across the pond in France. He played one season away from the U.S. and then returned to amateur hockey for several years. In 1925, Geran’s former Wanderers teammate, Art Ross, contacted him to see if he wanted to play for the Boston Bruins. Ross was now the coach and general manager in Boston. Geran returned to the NHL nearly eight years after his debut. He made history again when he scored a goal December 11, 1925, becoming the first U.S. Born player to score a goal in the NHL. He scored a second goal later that same game.
Geran also represented his country at the 1920 Olympics. The team won silver and he scored a hat trick against Sweden. The United States asked him to play in 1924 as well. Geran didn’t give the team a definitive answer about whether he would participate. Ultimately, he never showed up. This added fuel to the Mystery Man of Hockey nickname.
After one year with the Bruins, he returned to amateur hockey again; this time in Saint Paul with the Saints. His final year of playing hockey was back in France. Overall, Geran may not have scored many goals or earned many points in the NHL, but his name will forever be etched in the record book as the first college hockey player in the NHL, first U.S. born player in the NHL, and first U.S. born player to score a goal in the NHL.
The original Boston Arena burned down to the ground in December 1918. It took a little more than three years to reconstruct the arena before the grand opening or re-opening, depending on how you look at it. Harvard’s freshmen and varsity teams hosted the first two games in 1910. This time, MIT was the inaugural host in the rebuilt Boston Arena when the team from Massachusetts welcomed its neighbors from the north, King’s College.
1920-21 MIT men’s hockey team
The Engineers agreed to play six-man hockey against their Canadian brethren on Friday, January 7, 1921. The team from Windsor, Nova Scotia, had been playing that type of hockey for the past six years. It was later noted after the game that it was the first time six-man hockey was played on a large ice surface in the city of Boston. In this season opener for MIT, the Engineers lost steam at the end of the game and King’s College pulled away with a 4-3 victory after scoring the game-winning goal with less than five minutes left in regulation. Tommy Winter sent a bouncing puck that jumped over the goaltender’s stick to win it for King’s College.
The following night, Harvard opened its season by hosting King’s College in the same venue. But this time it would be a seven-on-seven hockey game. The Crimson refused to switch to six-man hockey so King’s College agreed to play with seven men in their second game of the weekend. The Crimson went undefeated the previous season in league play and were Triangular League champions. Because of this, the Boston Globe all but guaranteed a victory over King’s College that night. The prediction would ring true as 6,500 spectators saw Harvard hand King’s College a 9-1 loss. It set a Boston record at the time for most fans to ever attend a hockey game.
Photo Credit: Featured Photo: The Boston Globe, January 8, 1921. Second Photo: 1920-21 MIT men’s hockey team photo, 1922 Technique Yearbook. Third Photo: 1920-21 King’s College men’s hockey team photo, the Boston Globe, January 4, 1921.
A much-anticipated arena opened in Boston in April 1910. The first event held at this multi-purpose building was an ice carnival to benefit the Sharon Sanatorium. Skating events were held throughout the afternoon and evening, including children’s races, adult speed skating, and an exhibition from former American figure skating champion Irving Brokaw. One of the afternoon events during this April 25, 1910, carnival was a hockey game between the Harvard Crimson freshmen team and Newton High School. The Crimson shut out Newton High by a score of 4-0. This exhibition game would go down in the record books as the first-ever hockey game played at Boston Arena.
Approximately 1,500 attendees were on hand for the nightcap between the Crimson varsity hockey team and the Crescent Hockey Club. The teams played two 15-minute periods. The only scoring throughout the game was in the first period when Crescent scored. This 1-0 exhibition game would go down in the record books as the first-ever hockey game played by a college varsity team at Boston Arena. The game took place more than two months after the Harvard’s last hockey game when the Crimson had defeated Yale to end the season. The team had alternated playing outside at Harvard Stadium and St. Nicholas Rink in New York City. Harvard finished in second place to Princeton.
Fans would have to wait nearly eight months to witness the first intercollegiate hockey game at Boston Arena. Harvard hosted MIT on December 18, 1910, at the beginning of the 1910-11 season. The Crimson defeated MIT 4-3. Both programs began calling Boston Arena home during this season. Additional college hockey teams would ultimately play home games at Boston Arena. Boston College and Boston University would do so in the inaugural seasons for both programs beginning in the 1917-18 season. In fact, the very first intercollegiate hockey game for both programs was a game where they faced off against one another at the arena February 6, 1918. Unfortunately, the building suffered a catastrophic fire in December 1918. The second iteration of the Boston Arena opened in January 1921. Northeastern first played a hockey game there December 1, 1924, and would ultimately become the tenant of the arena after purchasing it in October 1979. The last game to be played at the historic arena will be December 13, 2025, when the Northeastern men’s hockey team will host Boston University.
Architectural concept drawing of Boston Arena prior to construction.
Photo Credit: Featured Photo and Second Photo: The Boston Globe, April 26, 1910. Third Photo: 1909 Harvard Crimson men’s varsity hockey team photo, the H book of Harvard athletics 1852-1922. Fouth Photo: Funk and Wilcox architectural concept drawing of Boston Arena.
Brown University hosted Alaska Anchorage on Black Friday in 1990. It was the first time the Alaska Anchorage hockey program had flown to Rhode Island. In fact, the November 23, 1990, game was the first time ever that Alaska Anchorage and Brown University faced off.
The Brown Bears are one of the founding members of the ECAC and remain in that conference to this day. Alaska Anchorage was an independent program during the 1990-91 season. It was in its seventh season since elevating to Division I. Heading into the Friday match up, Brown was still looking for its first win of the season after starting 0-5-1. The team was coming off a tough 7-1 loss to its cross-town rival Providence during the 5th annual Mayor’s Cup. Things weren’t going to get any easier for Brown; the Seawolves were a national tournament team the year before. And on the horizon the following weekend were the top two teams in the ECAC at the time: Clarkson and St. Lawrence.
As for the game itself, the visiting Seawolves controlled the majority of it at Meehan Auditorium that night. The third period saw numerous penalties called on both teams. In the final minute of regulation, the Seawolves were up by two goals but down two men. Chris Kaban netted a goal for Brown to cut the lead to 6-5. Derek Chauvette then tied the score to send the game to overtime. The bonus period didn’t see any scoring, resulting in a 6-6 tie.
1990-91 Brown Bears men’s hockey team
The improbable comeback spurred Brown as the Bears upset Clarkson the following week 5-2. The team would go 7-5-1 in the 13 games following this game. But in the end, Yale defeated Brown in the opening round of the ECAC tournament and the Bears finished with a 9-15-3 record. Alaska Anchorage, on the other hand, went to overtime the following night against Providence College as well but ran out of gas and lost in the extra session. It was just the third game in that all-time series after Providence visited Anchorage almost a decade prior. The Seawolves finished its 1990-91 regular season with a 20-14-4 record and received an invite to the NCAA tournament for the second season in a row. The Seawolves defeated Boston College in the best-of-three opening round series after winning the first two games against the Eagles. Eventual champion Northern Michigan defeated the Seawolves in the next round en route to the NCAA trophy.
Photo Credit: Featured photo: The Brown Daily Herald 118 (1990-11-27). Brown Daily Herald. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Secondary photo: 1990-91 Brown Bears men’s hockey team photo from the Liber Brunensis (1991 Yearbook). Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
Maine hosted Massachusetts during a late January weekend in 1979. It was the first time these two programs had ever met on the ice. At the time, both schools played hockey within Division II. The teams were on different trajectories, however. Going into the series, the Maine men boasted a 12-6 record while UMass was sitting at 1-5. The two-game series played out as expected without any upsets. On Friday the 26th, Maine won 8-3. The Minutemen scored three goals the following night as well, but Maine upped the ante and scored double digit goals with 13. By the end of the 1978-79 season, Maine finished with a 25-8-1 record and lost in the ECAC 2 semifinal game to Salem State. The Minutemen, on the other hand, would not win another game the remainder of the season, finishing at 1-18-1. This coincidentally was the last season within the Division II hockey world for both programs. The Black Bears made the leap to ECAC‘s top hockey conference in Division I the next season. UMass decided to end its hockey program for the foreseeable future. It would end up being 14 years before another team was fielded in Amherst. This time, the Minutemen would try their hand in Division I.
Both programs have flourished at different times throughout their respective Division I eras with multiple NCAA titles between the two. The first game the teams played within Division I was a Hockey East showdown in January 1995 when Maine traveled to Amherst for the first time. The Black Bears were the number one ranked team in the nation at the time, and UMass was able to split the series. Flash forward to today and the teams will play games 103 and 104 in the all-time series in Amherst this Thursday and Friday. Heading into the weekend, Maine leads the series 62-29-11.
Photo Credit: The Maine Campus, Feb. 2, 1979. Maine Campus Archives.
The College of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, announced in 1920 that a new varsity sport was going to debut that winter: ice hockey. The sport itself wasn’t new to the school. In fact, elevating the sport to varsity status was a long time coming as players from the school had originally donned the purple and gray for games on Lake Mennith sixteen years prior in 1904. The swampy lake was on campus until 1909 when the city built a sewer line for Summit Avenue that eventually drained the water. It officially dried up in 1911.
The first varsity captain for St. Thomas was George Conroy, a left wing who previously played hockey as a junior member of the Saint Paul Athletic Club. Bill Houle was the leading scorer, having netted 34 goals by season’s end for St. Thomas. The Cadets, as they were known as at the time, played an 11-game schedule in the inaugural season. The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) was in its infancy after forming earlier that year in 1920. St. Thomas was one of three teams from the conference to offer varsity hockey during the 1920-21 season, along with Macalester and Hamline. St. Thomas stated at the time that the MIAC teams wouldn’t have had a three-team hockey conference that first year if it wasn’t for Howard Dudley. The school said it was his initiative that drove the formation of the league. He was asked to become manager of the Cadets in that first season. He was a current student at the college and was the team captain of both the St. Thomas football and baseball teams.
The Cadets played an initial three-game conference schedule with the remaining games counting as practice, non-conference, or exhibition depending on the terminology used in the description of the games. The team was undefeated in league play after taking down Macalester 9-1 and then Hamline twice by scores of 3-1 and 5-1. The conference games were played at Lexington Rink in Saint Paul as all three teams were located within that city. The conference was often referred to as the Triangular League – not to be confused with the East Coast’s version of a league of the same name.
The most lopsided victory during the season was a 21-1 drubbing of the Fort Snelling team. The Cadets only allowed eight goals throughout the entire 11-game season. The team would go on to finish with an 10-1 overall record that included an undefeated 3-0 conference season. St. Thomas claimed the first hockey title of the MIAC teams. An interesting aspect of that first season was the last game’s opponent. A team from the University of Minnesota represented the Gophers but hockey had yet to be recognized as a varsity sport at the school – something that would happen the following season. Because of this and the fact that the game occurred after the conference championship was secured, St. Thomas referred to it as an exhibition game. The Gophers won 3-1. While the Cadets admitted the Gophers fielded a strong team, they also pointed out that the outdoor rink conditions were very poor. Due to all of the above, St. Thomas crowned themselves the college hockey champions of the state of Minnesota in 1921. Within the featured photo, the hockey stick in the foreground reads “Champions 1921” in white lettering on the black tape.
Predictably, the St. Thomas hockey program has evolved throughout the years. Outside of hockey, the school changed its name from a college to a university and adopted the Tommies nickname in the late 1920s. The team was a member of the MIAC until the university elevated all of its sports to Division I in 2021. The school launched a women’s varsity hockey team in 1998. And most recently, the Tommies are set to open a brand new on-campus rink on Friday, October 24, 2025. The women’s team will play the first game at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena when they host Providence. The men will play the same school later that evening. This will mark the first-ever hockey games between St. Thomas and Providence. St. Thomas hockey, and the sport itself, has evolved a lot since the early 1900s. But one thing has come full circle: hockey is returning to campus, and the new rink will be only 2,000 feet away from the very first puck drop that took place on Lake Mennith 121 years ago.
Photo Credit: 1920-21 St. Thomas hockey team photo from the 1921 St. Thomas Kaydet Yearbook.
Two college hockey teams located within the state of New York debuted in the winter of 1903: Union and Army. Only a little more than 100 miles separate West Point from Schenectady, yet it took more than 73 years for the in-state teams to play a game against one another at Union’s home rink. And it wasn’t even on the schedule at the beginning of the season.
Army fielded a varsity hockey program at its onset while hockey at Union didn’t gain varsity status until 1919. It’s doubtful that played a part in why the teams didn’t play one another for the first time until 1924, but it’s worth noting. It’s also worth noting that Union suspended hockey operations three times in the first 17 years of the program; something that likely contributed more to the delay than varsity status considering colleges often played local club and high school teams at the time. The first game between the two programs was February 13, 1924, and was played outdoors at Stuart Rink on the United States Military Academy campus behind the gymnasium. The teams played a total of 10 times at West Point before the Cadets would travel up north for a game at Union. Army won 9 of these 10 games with Union snapping the nine-game win streak in 1941. Thirty-five years later, Union finally hosted Army on March 6, 1976.
The game took place the first season the Union program was reinstated after nearly thirty years without hockey. The Dutchmen, as they were known as at the time, joined ECAC 2 in Division II. Army was an original member of ECAC 2 since 1973 when the NCAA split the College Division into Divisions II and III. The 1975-76 season saw Union dominate competition – a feat that was unexpected for a new program. The Dutchmen had a 16-game win streak heading into the ECAC 2 quarterfinals. Army, on the other hand, owned a 17-8 overall record by the end of the regular season. This would mean the Cadets would head to Schenectady, New York, for the first time.
During the regular season, Union’s all-freshmen team shocked ECAC 2 with the best record in the division. However, the team was seeded 4th in the ECAC 2 tournament due to the competition it scheduled throughout its first season back. In this playoff game, the older, experienced and more physical Army team upset the Dutchmen 3-2 in front of a shocked crowd at Achilles Rink. Army played Merrimack in the conference semifinals the following week and lost 8-2 to finish the season.
The Union men’s hockey team will host Army this upcoming Saturday on October 4, 2025. The Black Knights will have the privilege of being the very first team to play against Union in its inaugural game at M&T Bank Center. With 101 years of hockey history between them, it’s only fitting that these two teams will break in the ice at this new arena.
Photo Credit: Union College Concordiensis, Vol. 105, No. 17. April 7, 1976.
At the beginning of the 1945 school year, Minneapolis Central High School announced varsity hockey would make its triumphant return. The Pioneers hockey program had been on hiatus due to World War II. That winter, the school welcomed hockey back for the first time in five years. When the 1945-46 roster was finalized, it was primarily made up of underclassmen. While this young team finished in fourth place in the conference with a record of 5-3-2, there were two skaters who would each later be inducted into multiple hall of fames.
A freshman named Bob Johnson made the 1945-46 team in his first varsity tryout. He would become a standout hockey star by the time his high school career was complete. He attended one year at North Dakota after high school and then transferred to his hometown college to become a Gopher. He played two seasons under John Mariucci. After college, he briefly coached high school varsity hockey at legendary Warroad High School and then Minneapolis Roosevelt before heading back to the NCAA – this time as a coach. He went west to Colorado College and served as the head coach for three seasons before accepting the head coaching position for the Wisconsin Badger’s men’s team. He brought three national championship trophies to Madison and earned the nickname of Badger Bob. He also coached the 1976 U.S. Olympic team during his Wisconsin tenure. In 1982, he moved up to the NHL and became head coach of the Calgary Flames. In 1990, he accepted the same position for the Pittsburgh Penguins and won the first Stanley Cup for the franchise in his first season as head coach. The Penguins defeated his hometown team the North Stars in six games. His expression of “it’s a great day for hockey” was so popular that it was used as a marketing slogan by the Penguins at one point in the 2000s. Johnson was inducted into the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame, Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame, U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, and Hockey Hall of Fame.
Another future college sports standout starred on the Minneapolis Central hockey team in 1946: upperclassman Bill Kuross. Bill, a junior during the 1945-46 hockey season, was a three-sport star for Central High. In addition to being a varsity skater, he excelled at football and notably tennis throughout his high school career. He and classmate Dick Roberts won the boys doubles state championship his junior year. He was also ranked as the top singles player in the state at one point. After graduation he would go on to play the same three sports for Augsburg College; located just four miles away from where he attended high school. He continued playing three sports in college and he once again excelled at tennis. He won the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tennis championship three times (twice for singles and once for doubles). After graduation, he was called to active duty in the Navy in 1954. He played tennis for the All-Navy team and won the All-Navy East championship. After returning home from service, he continued to play tennis while doubling as head football coach of Minneapolis Washburn High School for four years. Kuross was inducted into the Augsburg College Hall of Fame and Northern United States Tennis Association Hall of Fame.
Byron Petersen, a senior on the team, had waited his entire high school career for hockey to come back to Central High School. As one of the few upperclassmen on the team, Petersen was one of the leaders on and off the ice. After graduation, he attended the University of Minnesota and then transferred to the University of Chicago to focus on a career in Optometry. After moving back to Minnesota, he and his high school sweetheart, Gloria Thompson, were married in 1950. Dr. Petersen and family moved to Mound, Minnesota in 1955 where he practiced optometry at the Mound Medical Clinic. Dr. Petersen later founded the Mound Eye Clinic and served the residents of Mound and surrounding communities until he retired in the 1990s. He was also a dedicated member of the local Jaycees and involved in the Chamber of Commerce. Both he and Gloria were avid volunteers as they each achieved more than 1,000 volunteer hours at the local care center. They also volunteered with Meals on Wheels and he tutored students in math. The two of them received the WCCO Good Neighbor Award in 2018 for their decades of volunteer service. Petersen, now age 97 and living in Spring Park, Minnesota, has fond memories of playing sports with Bob Johnson when they were kids. He reminisced about how he would play pick-up games of baseball on 44th Street and 4th Avenue with him and others from the neighborhood when they were growing up. He recalled that the assistant varsity hockey coach, Reverend Gordon Bennet, was a very kind coach and, first and foremost, wanted everyone on the team to enjoy the game of hockey. Byron was thrilled to finally be given the chance to play organized hockey after the war. The uniforms the team wore on the ice were loaned to them from the varsity football team. Byron Petersen is near and dear to this author’s heart as I am proudly his grandson. I likely wouldn’t have seen the photos that led me to writing this story if I hadn’t taken a look at his 1946 senior yearbook while visiting him this summer.
Minneapolis Central High School closed its doors forever in 1982 along with two other Minneapolis public schools. The school building that had been standing since 1913 was demolished soon after. However, the gymnasium was spared due to it being recently built. To this day, a gymnasium still stands on that site as a local rec center. Famous Minneapolis Central alumni also include Halsey Hall, the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Famer; William “Pudge” Heffelfinger, the first professional football player in America; and Prince, the world-famous musician.
Photo Credits: Both photos are from the 1946 Minneapolis Central High School Yearbook. In the featured team photo, it is presumed that Bob Johnson is in the bottom row, second from the left wearing the 37 sweater. Bill Kuross is kneeling next to Johnson in the far left of the bottom row wearing number 28. Petersen is third from the left in the top row wearing number 31. In the secondary photo, a Pioneer skates in on the opposing goalie.
