Category: ECAC

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Posted on Posted in ECAC, Hockey East, Union Garnet Chargers, Vermont Catamounts
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The inaugural season for Union men’s hockey was 1903, making it one of the oldest college hockey programs in the nation. Union made the jump to Division I hockey prior to the 1991-92 season. Vermont, on the other hand, introduced men’s hockey in 1963 and moved up to Division I in 1974. Both teams were a part of the ECAC in that first season of Division I hockey for Union. This is when the teams met on the ice for the first time. The Catamounts won the first game in the series 3-1 at home in Burlington. Later that season, Vermont traveled to Schenectady, New York, for the first time.

The Catamounts were victorious on Union’s sheet of ice as well. The final score in the February 7, 1992, game was 5-2 in favor of Vermont, ensuring the season sweep in the first-ever meetings between the schools. By the end of the season, the Dutchmen (as they were known as the time) had finished in last place in the conference with three wins and would miss the ECAC tournament. Not surprising for a team in its first year in highest level of college hockey. Vermont ended up with a winning record of 16-12-3 and lost in the first round of the ECAC tournament as a seven seed to RPI.

Union hosts Vermont this weekend. This will be a non-conference match up as the Catamounts have been members of Hockey East since 2005. The Catamounts lead the all-time series 20-14-2 but the Garnet Chargers (Union’s nickname since 2023) favor an 8-5-2 record when the teams play in Schenectady.

Photo Credit: Concordiensis, February 13, 1992.

Posted on Posted in Atlantic Hockey, Augustana Vikings, Big Ten, Boston College Eagles, Boston University Terriers, CCHA, Clarkson Golden Knights, Colgate Raiders, Denver Pioneers, ECAC, Hockey East, Michigan Wolverines, NCHC, Ohio State Buckeyes, Robert Morris Colonials, Wisconsin Badgers
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The content of this recap is also available in the 2020s page of our U.S. College Hockey History section of the site.

The 2023-24 season saw the return of Robert Morris to Division I men’s and women’s hockey. The program had been on hiatus since the end of the 2020-21 season. The university announced it was eliminating both hockey programs May 26, 2021, just months after the women’s team won its conference title. The school reversed the decision December 17, 2021, due in large part to the efforts from the hockey community, students, alumni, and men’s head coach, Derek Schooley, to raise funds to revive the program.

For the fourth season in a row, a new school added Division I men’s hockey. On October 5, 2021, Augustana University formally announced a new Division I hockey program to begin play in the 2023-24 season. The following May the CCHA announced Augustana would be its ninth conference member. The Vikings would start off with two seasons of a transitional schedule followed by a full schedule beginning in the 2025-26 season. Augustana’s first game was in Madison, Wisconsin, against the Badgers October 7, 2023. It was official: Augustana was the first Division I hockey team from the state of South Dakota.

The 2024 men’s Frozen Four included four college hockey blue bloods with a combined 96 Frozen Fours and 28 NCAA titles between them heading into the final weekend of the season. It was the 11th time Minnesota hosted a men’s Frozen Four and seventh time in Saint Paul. Denver defeated Boston University 2-1 in overtime in the first semifinal game. It was the first time these teams played one another in the Frozen Four since 1971. Boston College faced Michigan in the nightcap. These two teams met in the semifinals of the very first national tournament in 1948. Michigan won the game 76 years ago by a score of 6-4 but the Eagles would win this contest 4-0. This set the stage for the first championship game to be played between Boston College and Denver. The two teams have been around since 1917 and 1949, respectively, yet had never met in the championship game until 2024. In this final game of the season, Denver shut out Boston College 2-0 to put the Pioneers in the sole Division I championship lead with its 10th NCAA title. With Denver’s win, this was the third Minnesota city where the Pioneers were crowned NCAA champions (Minneapolis in 1958, Duluth in 1969, and Saint Paul in 2024). Of the 11 times Minnesota hosted the men’s Frozen Four, only one Eastern team has won (Harvard in 1989). This also meant the first time the Xcel Energy Center has hosted a Frozen Four where a team not based in Minnesota won. Previous teams to win the championship trophy at the arena include Minnesota in 2002 and Minnesota Duluth in both 2011 and 2019.

Seventeen-year-old freshman phenom Macklin Celebrini of Boston University won the 2024 Hobey Baker Award and became the youngest player to do so. Celebrini was the fourth freshman to win it and second in a row. In his freshman season, he broke the record for most college goals by a 17-year old with 32. He also added 32 assists. Celebrini was the first freshman to record at least 30 goals and 30 assists in the same season since 2005-06.

The Women’s Frozen Four took place in Durham, New Hampshire, for the fourth time. A Minnesota-based team was crowned champion at the Whittemore Center in each of the three previous title games New Hampshire hosted. The field in 2024 ensured that wouldn’t happen this time. Two teams represented the WCHA and two represented the ECAC. The championship game became an all-WCHA affair after Ohio State defeated Clarkson 4-1 and Wisconsin defeated Colgate 3-1 in the semifinals. It was the Buckeyes third title game in a row. This set the stage for the first championship rematch since 2007-2008 when Wisconsin met Minnesota Duluth back to back. The 2024 title game was scoreless until Joy Dunne of Ohio State netted a goal a little over halfway through the third period. The Buckeyes held on to win 1-0 and secured the program’s second NCAA title in three seasons. This was the 21st women’s hockey championship for the WCHA.

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In Division III men’s hockey, the Dubuque Spartans debuted in Dubuque, Iowa. This marked the first NCAA hockey program based in the state of Iowa. In the national tournament, Hobart defeated Curry College 4-3 in 4OT within the quarterfinals to win the second longest Division III men’s hockey game of all time. Curry College may have lost the game but its goalie, Shane Soderwall, made 98 saves to tie the all-time record for most saves in a game. This overtime thriller propelled the Hobart Statesman throughout the playoffs and ultimately to the program’s second NCAA title in a row after Hobart defeated Trinity 2-0 in the championship game in Hartford, Connecticut.

In Division III women’s hockey, the Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons won its first NCAA hockey championship in impressive fashion. The Falcons finished the season undefeated at 31-0-0 and set the Division III women’s hockey record for most wins in a season.

Posted on Posted in ECAC, St. Lawrence Saints
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St. Lawrence first fielded a varsity hockey team during the 1925-26 season. The team played three games in its inaugural season with the first game taking place February 13, 1926, against nearby rival Clarkson. It was an away game at Potsdam and the Clarkson team defeated the Saints 1-0 on home ice. St. Lawrence fared better in the second game when the Saints defeated Massena American Legion by a score of 2-1. The third and final game of the short season was against Clarkson once again – this time on home ice. The result was similar to that first game in that Clarkson won by one goal with a final score of 2-1. The 1926 St. Lawrence Gridiron Yearbook stated it was a one goal game. However, there are other records of this game that state it was 3-1. Either way, Clarkson won the second meeting.

St. Lawrence was victorious on the ice once during the season, but the contest is considered an exhibition in the college history books as it took place against a non-collegiate team. St. Lawrence may not have achieved an official collegiate win in that first season, but it achieved two very important milestones. The first is that it saw the beginning of a hockey program that is currently approaching nearly 100 years of existence. The second is that the very first game in program history kicked off a long-standing rivalry that continues to this day.

The rivalry between St. Lawrence and Clarkson is nicknamed the Route 11 Rivalry as the schools are separated by just 10 miles. The two teams will renew the rivalry this weekend in a home-and-home series. St. Lawrence and Clarkson have played one another 218 times prior to this weekend.

Photo Credit: 1926 Gridiron Yearbook

Posted on Posted in ECAC, St. Lawrence Saints

By the time the 1947-48 hockey season ended in early March, St. Lawrence had put together the most successful team the school had seen to date. St. Lawrence finished 6-3-0 in collegiate play and broke all of the previous school records. The Saints were managed by first-year coach, Paul Patten, who doubled as the school’s backfield coach for the football squad. Defenseman Jack Klemens served as captain in his final season at St. Lawrence. The school paper and yearbook boasted a record of 9-5-1. However, six of the contests were considered exhibitions due to games against Canadian schools and other hockey programs outside of the college ranks. Either way, it was the first winning season in St. Lawrence hockey history. And in what could be considered the biggest accomplishment, this winning season was played almost exclusively in opponents’ rinks. The Skating Saints only played one game on home ice.

The Saints scored 112 goals throughout the season. This shattered the previous school record of 39 goals scored during the 1940-41 season. Tom Gerard scored 23 goals with 19 assists to set the school record at the time for most points scored in a season. Bud Crutchley tied Gerard for the school record in assists with 19 as well. There were several notable games for the program as well. In the Saints’ first-ever meeting with Princeton, St. Lawrence shocked the hockey world with a 6-3 victory at Hobey Baker Memorial Rink. And the scarlet-clad hockey team defeated Union late in the season by a seemingly improbable score of 17-0.

This season jump started the program. St. Lawrence put together 16 seasons in a row with winning records thereafter. This included the 1960-61 season where the Saints were national runners-up. In 1951, the program moved the hockey games indoors to Appleton Arena where the Saints home games are played to this day in Canton, New York.

Photo Credit: 1948 Gridiron Yearbook

Posted on Posted in ECAC, NCHC, Quinnipiac Bobcats, St. Cloud State Huskies
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The 2013 Frozen Four in Pittsburgh was unique in that the four teams were all searching for their first Division I men’s hockey championship. Of these teams, only Yale had previously reached the national semifinals back in 1952; long before the Frozen Four moniker was even an idea. Two of the teams from the 2013 Frozen Four will be facing off against one another in the national tournament this Friday.

Quinnipiac and St. Cloud State were slated for the nightcap on Thursday, April 11, 2013. These were two teams who took similar routes to get to this destination yet ended up with opposite seeds in the 2013 national tournament. Quinnipiac was the number one seed in the East Region after winning the ECAC regular season title and going 27-7-5 prior to the national tournament. The Bobcats lost the ECAC semifinal game against Brown yet still ended up a one seed in the regional. St. Cloud State represented the WCHA in the team’s last year in the conference and went 23-15-1 prior to the national tournament. The Huskies won the WCHA regular season title yet lost to Wisconsin in the WCHA semifinals. Warranted or not, the Huskies ended up as the fourth seed in the Midwest Region. Quinnipiac defeated Canisius and Union to win the region. St. Cloud State defeated Notre Dame and Miami.

Yale won a close contest with Massachusetts Lowell in the early game April 11, 2013. The second game that night tilted in the Bobcats favor early. Jordan Samuels-Thomas scored a power play goal less than two minutes into the game for Quinnipiac. The Bobcats didn’t let up, scoring less than four minutes later. Then scored again to make it 3-0 before the end of the first period. The Huskies got one back in the second after a goal from Joey Benik but Quinnipiac answered back before the next intermission. A scoreless third period propelled Quinnipiac into the title game.

Quinnipiac faced division-rival Yale in a battle between Connecticut schools and a repeat of the ECAC Third Place Game. The Bobcats defeated the Bulldogs 3-0 in that earlier game but it would be a different outcome when it mattered the most. Yale won the program’s first NCAA national title after a 4-0 shut out and the Bulldogs were crowned 2013 national champions.

Quinnipiac and St. Cloud State will meet this Friday in the opening round of the 2022 NCAA men’s national tournament. The two teams are in the Midwest Regional and will play at PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The Bobcats are the second seed while the Huskies are the third seed. Both teams are at-large bids. Will Quinnipiac defeat the Huskies on the national stage yet again or will St. Cloud State avenge the loss from 2013? The victor will face the winner of Michigan and American International for a chance to head to the 2022 Frozen Four.

Posted on Posted in Dartmouth Big Green, ECAC, Yale Bulldogs
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There was a specific time in the 1950s when the Ivy League hosted its own hockey conference. This occurred in the six seasons between the ending of the Pentagonal League and formation of the ECAC. The 1957-58 season took place during that time. Dartmouth posted a 13-12-0 record the season before. The team also had a winning Ivy League record of 5-3-0. Yale came into the season looking to improve upon a 10-15-0 overall and matching 5-3-0 Ivy League record from the previous season.

The game that took place on the Dartmouth campus January 11, 1958, was technically the Ivy League opener for both teams. However, Yale played Brown in the third game of the RPI Tournament in Troy, New York, the week before. The Indians (later renamed the Big Green in the 1970s) touted a 7-2-0 nonconference record. Yale was looking to rebound from an early hole of 2-6-1 and get back into the win column for the first time since December 4, 1957.

The game was played on campus at Davis Rink – the precursor to Thompson Arena. The home team would end up victorious by a score of 5-2. In the featured photo, sophomore Ryan Ostebo scores as a Yale player defends. Ostebo grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was a standout defenseman on the Dartmouth team. He was twice named to the All Ivy Team and once to the All New England Team.

The nonconference hot streak at the beginning of the season would help Dartmouth finish with a 13-10-1 winning record despite the team’s 2-5-1 Ivy League record. Yale bounced back after this game and went 2-0-1 in the following three games. The Bulldogs ended with an 8-12-2 record yet were even with a 4-4-0 in-conference Ivy League record.

The six Division I men’s hockey programs that are a part of the Ivy League today are currently members of the ECAC. The Ivy League team with the best record against the other five teams are crowned the Ivy League hockey champion. There was no Ivy League champion crowned last season during 2020-21 due to the schools not participating during the pandemic. Cornell was the Ivy League champion for the 2019-20 season with an 8-1-1 Ivy League record.

The Dartmouth Library Archives noted the game was from January 1, 1958, due to the hand-written note on the back of the featured photograph. However, Dartmouth and Yale archives state the game was played January 11, 1958, with neither team playing January 1. This archival date was likely due to an overzealous comma in the hand-written “January, 1958” note being mistook as the number one on the back of the photo.

Photo Credit: Ostebo, Ryan. “Hockey Games 1, Davis Rink and Before.” Dartmouth College Photographic Files, 1958. Dartmouth Digital Library Program, collections.dartmouth.edu/archive/object/PhotoFiles/PhotoFiles-Icon1647-1044-0000030.

Posted on Posted in Boston University Terriers, Cornell Big Red, ECAC, Hockey East
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On November 25, 2017, Boston University and Cornell met at Madison Square Garden for the sixth edition of Red Hot Hockey. The Red Hot Hockey event was introduced in 2007 when two long-time rivals squared off in New York City’s famous arena. The inaugural game drew 18,200 fans and was considered a success. Members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team were on hand to watch Boston University defeat Cornell. The two programs decided to make a series out of it. After this first game, the Terriers and Big Red have met every odd numbered year the weekend after Thanksgiving in Madison Square Garden in a series known as Red Hot Hockey.

After the first five editions of Red Hot Hockey, Boston University was undefeated with a record of 3-0-2. This changed in 2017. The Big Red jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a goal from Beau Starrett with less than five minutes remaining in the first period. Cornell extended the lead on a goal from Trevor Yates less than seven minutes into the second frame. Then just a little more than two minutes later, Alec McCrea scored a power-play goal to put the Big Red up 3-0. Boston University scored in the third period before Cornell could really pull away. It was a power-play goal from Dante Fabbro less than five minutes into the period. Cornell answered back when freshman Tristan Mullin scored his first collegiate goal. The Terriers would score two more goals by Chad Krys and Patrick Harper but it wasn’t enough. The Big Red held on to the 4-3 win and captured the program’s first Red Hot Hockey win and, with it, the Kelley-Harkness Cup.

In the above photo, Boston University’s Jordan Greenway skates around Cornell’s Brendan Smith during the first period of the 2017 Red Hot Hockey game at Madison Square Garden.

The two red-clad teams will meet for the eighth installment of Red Hot Hockey this weekend on November 27. Cornell is on a two-game Red Hot Hockey winning streak after registering the series’ first shut out in 2019. The game will once again take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. For two programs that have a storied history of playing against one another since 1925, the Red Hot Hockey series adds an extra kick to this rivalry every two years.

Posted on Posted in ECAC, Princeton Tigers

On November 13, 1921, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association passed a rule that hockey teams were to reduce the number of players on the ice per team from seven to six. The rule took effect in the upcoming 1921-22 season. Several teams had already shifted to six-man hockey yet others had remained with seven. This rule change set to ensure that all teams were on the same page in order to avoid confusion about which set of rules would be used for each game. The National Hockey League had previously adopted this rule change in 1911 when it was known as the National Hockey Association. It was a success with players and fans. More than one hundred years later, hockey at all levels is still a six-man game (counting five players and goalie for each team on the ice).

An article in the December 1, 1921, edition of the Daily Princetonian stated that the Intercollegiate Athletic Association had passed the rule. This was the original name of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) when it formed in 1906. However, the association had changed its name in 1910 to the current version we all know at this time. Making things even murkier, an article in the November 15, 1921, edition of the Daily Princetonian stated that it was the new Intercollegiate Ice Hockey Association of America that passed this rule. This was likely a misprint because the same paragraph later stated that the association was a league that included soccer and basketball and was created to pass rules and decide upon officials. The Princeton hockey team had previously played within the Intercollegiate Hockey Association of America but that league disbanded in 1913 and the team was a part of the Triangular Hockey League with Harvard and Yale in 1921. Clear as mud, right?

Our view here at College Hockey History is that Princeton and other teams brought their hockey, basketball and soccer programs under the umbrella of the NCAA on November 13, 1921, and it was at that time that official rules for hockey games were solidified.

Article from the November 15, 1921, issue of the Daily Princetonian
Article from the November 15, 1921, issue of the Daily Princetonian

The aforementioned rule change was the most significant rule passed that day for college hockey but it wasn’t the only rule decided that day for the sport. For instance, it was decided that player substitutions should only be made when the puck was dead. This rule didn’t last long because it was Harvard that created the first line change during game play in 1923 that was quickly adopted by other teams after witnessing its success. An important rule solidified the duration of games. It would now be standard that games would consist of three periods that each lasted fifteen minutes. If the game ended in a tie, the teams would have two overtime periods of five minutes to determine a winner. Lastly, it was agreed upon that all members of the team would wear numbered sweaters in the same fashion as the players in football.

This was a monumental moment in college hockey. Long gone were the days of determining the rules on the rink before a game started. Now there was a governing body that would do that for them. And with the onset of these new rules, the game at that time made a huge leap towards the game of hockey as we know it today.

Posted on Posted in ECAC, NCHC, North Dakota Fighting Hawks, Quinnipiac Bobcats
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The date: April 9, 2016. The location: Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The teams: number one overall seed Quinnipiac Bobcats versus number three overall seed North Dakota. The stakes: 2016 Division I men’s national champion.

Quinnipiac entered the game as the ECAC regular season and tournament champion with a 32-3-7 record. North Dakota entered the game as an at-large bid after losing in the NCHC semifinals to UMD 4-2. However, the Fighting Hawks won the NCHC regular season crown and were heading into the title game with a 33-6-4 record. This was a heavyweight battle for the title and a packed house of 19,358 were there to take in every moment of it.

The championship game was scoreless for the first half of the opening period until freshman Shane Gersich put North Dakota on the board first. Several minutes later fellow freshman Brock Boeser scored a short-handed goal for the Fighting Hawks to make it 2-0. Quinnipiac would get on the board at the end of the period on a 5-on-3 power-play goal from Tim Clifton. There was no scoring in the second frame. North Dakota senior Drake Caggiula scored two goals in the third period to put the game out of reach for the Bobcats. Austin Poganski put the final stamp on the game and sealed it for the Fighting Hawks halfway through the third period. The final score was 5-1. This was North Dakota’s eighth national championship for the men’s team and first since 2000.

This weekend, these same two teams will meet on the ice for the first time since this championship tilt. Quinnipiac will host North Dakota on Friday and Saturday at the team’s home arena in Hamden, Connecticut. Not only will it be a rematch of the championship game from five years ago, it will also be a top ten battle. North Dakota travels east as the number 6 team in the nation with Quinnipiac as the number 7 team. As it stands, the Fighting Hawks own a 4-0 record against the Bobcats and it will be the first time North Dakota has played in Hamden. There are no longer any Quinnipiac Bobcats on the team from the 2016 title game but head coach Rand Pecknold surely remembers it well. He will look to avenge that loss this weekend with a win or two in yet another heavyweight battle between these two programs.

Posted on Posted in ECAC, Yale Bulldogs
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Hockey will be back in action on the Yale campus this upcoming fall after the Ivy League cancelled winter sports last season due to COVID concerns. The 2020-21 season was the first time the Yale Bulldogs did not field an ice hockey team since its inception in 1895. That is quite an impressive run for the school that played the very first intercollegiate game in the history of the sport.

Today we’re taking a look back at the Yale squad from the 1932-33 season. It was the third season with Holcomb York at the helm and was the last Independent season for the Bulldogs before the Quadrangular League was formed. This precursor to the Ivy League included Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth. The 1932-33 team was coming off of an 11-7-2 record the previous season. With hopes for a fast start, the team ended up 5-4 after the first nine games. However, an impressive 12-0 victory over Middlebury followed by an 11-0 shutout of Brown the next game jumpstarted the team into a four-game winning streak. As was tradition at the time, the team met Harvard in the final games of the season. Yale won the first game 4-1 at home. The final two games took place at Boston Garden with the Crimson defeating the Bulldogs 4-1 on March 4 and again 4-3 (in overtime) on March 8. At the end of the season, Yale ended up with an 11-8-0 record.

In the accompanying team photo, the players are wearing the white sweaters with Yale Blue trim. The player in the center of the photo who is the only one wearing the Y logo is presumably the captain, Alexander Fletcher.

Photo Credit: Yale Athletics Photographs (RU 691). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.