As CT Ice comes to Hartford, UConn, Yale, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart want to make it the next big thing: What to know, how to watch
The CT Ice Tournament has been played in Bridgeport, at Quinnipiac, and now, for its fourth go-around, the state’s top college hockey programs are taking the show to Hartford.
Is the XL Center the place to keep it?
“I’m hoping … we make this a permanent home for the tournament,” said UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh. “I think it needs a permanent home, and the proximity for all our schools, it’s pretty much right in the middle. I’m excited to see what the tournament brings at the XL Center.”
UConn plays Sacred Heart on Friday at 4 p.m., with defending national champ Quinnipiac to play Yale at 7 p.m.. The winners play for the championship Saturday night at 7, the consolation game at 3:30 p.m.
So far, UConn officials say, there have been 3,889 tickets sold for Friday and 4,570 for Saturday. Cavanaugh is hoping the walk-up brings the attendance to 6,000 or more, which would push attendance deeper into record numbers. With attendance underwhelming at Bridgeport’s Total Mortgage Arena, the schools entered into a four-year agreement to rotate as hosts. Last year, the games sold out at Quinnipiac’s M&T Bank Arena, which seats about 3,500.
It’s UConn’s turn to host in 2024, and rather than play at the new Toscano Family Ice Forum, which seats about 2,500, Cavanaugh and the Huskies will host at their second home.
“My first thing is, I want to have the tournament,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “I’m fine with a lot of options we have out there. In terms of locking into Hartford, let’s see how we do, see what kind of fans we get, what kind of support we get. We were really excited to host it last year, sold out both days. In the end, I just want to have the tournament. As long as it’s in Connecticut, it’s not that far for anybody.”
Yale’s Keith Allain also took a wait-and-see approach to committing to Hartford.
“This is year two of a four-year agreement so I think the question is moot,” Allain said. “We haven’t played in the XL Center yet. I think it’s a nice venue, but this weekend will tell us.”
All four schools have attractive on-campus arenas. Sacred Heart’s Martire Family Arena, which seats 3,600, is also new, and Yale’s Ingalls Rink (3,500) is filled with history, so rotating the event would have its benefits.
With all four schools within an hour or so of Hartford, and having strong fan bases, students back on their campuses, could CT Ice one day bring 10,000 or more to Hartford?
“I believe this can be a marquee sporting event in Connecticut,” said Sacred Heart coach C.J. Marotollo, a North Haven native. “:We’ve taken steps to try to grow it every year. We’ve gone to home sites, I’m not sure where I fall on that. Should it be at a larger venue? Should it be at home sites? We have a little time before we have to make that choice.”
The games will be televised by SNY, which helped launch the event in January 2020, the telecasts produced by UConn. The concept, to create a Connecticut tournament that mirrors Boston’s famous Beanpot, is embraced by all the coaches, with a goal of getting more young athletes in the state to fall in love with hockey.
Marotollo and Cavanaugh both proposed a separate committee to oversee the event as a logical next step.
“I think for this tournament to really take off and take on a life of its own like the beanpot, we need to have some type of committee that runs it very similar to the Beanpot,” said Cavanaugh, a long-time assistant at Boston College before coming to UConn. “There can be representation from every school, but a committee that is not necessarily biased toward one school or another, but is about what’s best for the tournament and what’s best to grow it in this state and hopefully we can get to that point.”
Sacred Heart emerged victories in the first CT Ice event. Quinnipiac won the next two, beating UConn in the championship game in 2022 and ’23 Last Jan. 28, Quinnipiac scored twice in the third period to beat UConn, 4-3, in what proved to be something of a precursor to its Frozen Four performance.
“If you make me pick a game,” said the Bobcats’ Collin Graf, “I’d probably go with the Connecticut Ice last year. Losing to UConn 3-2 and pulling it together and winning that trophy, that was really a good turning point in our season.”
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Said Marotollo, “A lot of things that we talk about, what it takes to win a championship, hopefully will play itself out this weekend.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Sacred Heart (11-12-2) vs. UConn (10-11-2), 4 p.m.
Both teams have had their highs and lows, but are in the thick of their conference races. Hockey East has three of the top five, and five of the top 16 teams in the important Pairwise Ratings, and UConn, fourth in the conference, is No. 21.
“Our league is as strong as its ever been, and we played toe to toe with Boston College, five of six periods against Maine, we shut them out, we went toe to toe with New Hampshire,” Cavanaugh said. “I know we can play with all these teams. I have a great leadership group, captains, seniors who have played a lot of hockey here who are not afraid of the big moment.”
Senior Chase Bradley leads the Huskies with 15 points, seven goals and eight assists. Right behind with seven and seven is sophomore Matthew Wood, first-round pick of the Predators in the last NHL Draft. In goal, Ethan Haider is on the Mike Richter Award watch list, but Sergeev Arsenii in multiple starts.
TJ Walsh (12 goals, 11 assists) is the top scorer for Sacred Heart, which leads the Atlantic Hockey Association with an 11-7-1 mark.
“It’s unique, kind of nice to break up conference play a little bit.” Pioneers captain Braeden Tuck said. “And any time you have a chance to win a championship in the middle of the year, it’s a cool opportunity for us to maybe build some momentum going into the final stretch.”
The game will be on Fox Sports radio, 97.9 FM.
Quinnipiac (15-6-2) vs. Yale (7-12-0), 7 p.m.
Quinnipiac has 12 new players, a mix of freshmen and transfers, but is back in the thick of contention, No. 8 in Pairwise despite losing at Colgate and Cornell last weekend. The Bobcats returned one of the best lines in college hockey, with Graf, Jacob Quillan and Sam Lipken, who generated the winning OT goal, scored by Quillen, against Minnesota in the national championship game last April. This season, they’ve combined for 36 goals, 48 assists.
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“We just happened to be put together one day and it just clicked,” Graf said. “Rand thought we were good and he kept us together and it sort of just built. All three of us deciding to come back and play this year, there’s definitely more room to grow.”
Quinnipiac faces an ECAC opponent, and long-time New Haven arch rival in Yale, led by top scorer David Chen (15 points). Most famously, Yale and Quinnipiac played in the 2013 NCAA Final, Yale winning.
“It’s always a fun game playing against Quinnipiac,” said Yale captain Reilly Connors, from Madison. “They’re great competition and that’s what we want, the best competition possible. Very excited to play (at XL), I know it’s a great atmosphere when the Wolf Pack plays there.”
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