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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.

Posted on Posted in Atlantic Hockey, ECAC, Quinnipiac Bobcats, Robert Morris Colonials
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The 2016 Three Rivers Classic was held in Pittsburgh during the final weekend of the year. The four college teams vying for the Confluence Cup were host Robert Morris, Quinnipiac, Boston College and Ferris State. This was the first time this combination of teams participated in the holiday tournament since it began four years prior. Robert Morris was defending its tournament title after defeating Massachusetts Lowell in 2015. The opening round in 2016 between Robert Morris and Ferris State was a nail biter as the Colonials won 1-0 on a goal from Daniel Leavens. Robert Morris freshman goalie Francis Marotte earned the shutout. In the other opening round game, 13th ranked Quinnipiac defeated Boston College 3-1.

The Bobcats jumped on the board first during the tournament’s championship game with a goal from Chase Priskie. The Colonials evened the score and then pulled away for good on a goal from Rob Mann with 46 seconds left in the second period. In the above photo, Daniel Mantenuto of Robert Morris handles the puck against Kevin McKernan in the third period.

Robert Morris went on to defeat Quinnipiac 5-2 to win the Confluence Cup; a trophy provided to the winner of the annual tournament. It was the Colonials third Confluence Cup in five years. After surrendering just two goals throughout both games, Francis Marotte earned the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award. Earlier in the day, Boston College defeated Ferris State in overtime to win the consolation game.

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Robert Morris again hosted the Three Rivers Classic the following two seasons with Providence and Brown each winning one. With the recent news that Robert Morris has discontinued its men’s and women’s hockey programs, it doesn’t look promising that this tournament will come back without the host school. In fact, the tournament wasn’t held in 2019-20 because the organizers took a year off to reevaluate strategy. The Colonials still played a game at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena against Penn State on January 4, 2020. And the tournament didn’t have a chance of reappearing this past season because of reduced schedules due to COVID protocols. If a weekend college hockey tournament is to happen again in Pennsylvania, then the responsibility falls to Penn State to act as the host due to the Nittany Lions being the only remaining Division I program in the state. It’s worth noting Penn State was a fixture in the first four Three Rivers Classics. No matter what happens with the Robert Morris program or future tournaments in Pennsylvania, it appears this era of the Three Rivers Classic is designated for the history books.

Posted on Posted in Colgate Raiders, ECAC
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The 1939-40 college hockey season was a successful one for the Colgate Raiders hockey team. The Raiders won the Lake Placid Invitation Hockey Tournament at the beginning of the new year. After defeating Union on New Year’s Day and then Middlebury the following day, Colgate met MIT in the tournament championship game. It was the third game in three days for both clubs. The thrilling game ended when co-captain Steve Dewey scored a goal in the closing seconds of the second (and final) overtime period to give the Raiders a 5-4 win. The game would have been called a tie if the second overtime period remained scoreless. Harry Wheeler, the other co-captain, received praise for his goal-scoring prowess throughout the season. There were numerous games where he scored the only goals of the game for the Raiders. Wheeler totaled 15 goals and 7 assists by season’s end. Fan-favorite Jack Wells followed with 11 goals and 4 assists. This earned him the lone captaincy the following season. Other notable items from the season included the postponement of three games due to poor ice as well as an exciting Sophomore line that was broken up near the end of the season when two of the three Sophomores dropped out of college halfway through the spring semester. The team lost the final three games of the season after this occurred. There are some discrepancies regarding the final record of the team. After consulting additional sources, we recognize the record of 8-6-0. In the accompanying photo, the 14 members of the 1939-40 Colgate hockey team lined up for the annual team photo that later appeared in the school’s yearbook. The goalies wore different jerseys compared to the rest of the team. Note the different color sweater with numbers on the front compared to the school’s name for the remainder of the team. Looking at it even closer, it appears the number font is different between each goalie.

Photo credit: 1940 Colgate Yearbook