The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Matchups announced for Connecticut Ice Festival
The subject of a twoday matchup of Connecticut’s four Division I men’s hockey programs was brought up seven years ago when UConn officially was accepted into Hockey East.
The next year there were more calls for Connecticut’s version of the Beanpot when Yale topped Quinnipiac in the 2013 Division I national championship game.
The years of planning culminated with the matchups being announced Tuesday for the inaugural Connecticut Ice Festival. Quinnipiac and UConn will open the tournament at 4 p.m. on Jan. 25, followed by Sacred Heart and Yale playing at 7:30 p.m. The consolation game is Jan. 26 at 3 p.m. followed by the championship game at 7 p.m.
All four games will be played at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport and will be broadcast live on SNY.
It was also announced that there will be a Mites CrossIce Jamboree, youth tournaments as well as boys and girls high school showcase games and a prep school game as well as part of the weekend of hockey.
“It has been in talks for a while getting an all Connecticut tournament and I
think they (SNY) helped push it over the edge,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “I hope this is something we can do year in and year out. I think it is great for the state of Connecticut and as a parent of a mite hockey player, I am looking forward to it and I am hoping that he gets a chance to be involved somehow. I am looking forward as a parent for my son to be in that environment and play on that ice, that great facility and then get to watch those four teams from the state.”
Hockey fans in the state got a taste of what they might see in January when Sacred Heart and UConn
played to a 44 tie as Sacred Heart’s Matt Tugnutt scored with three seconds left in the third period to send the game into overtime.
UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh got to experience the excitement of the Beanpot featuring matchups of the four Division I programs from Boston when he was an assistant coach at Boston College.
“When I was at Boston College, it was second to the national tournament, our alumni base wanted to win that tournament sometimes more than they wanted to win Hockey East, that is how important it was to them,” Cavanaugh said. “It thought it was great for our team because you are under a microscope and there is a lot of pressure.”
The most interesting story
line on the opening night of the event will be Sacred Heart coach C.J. Marottolo, a former assistant coach at Yale, squaring off against Keith Allain’s Bulldogs.
“I was fortunate to have C.J. on my staff for a number of years and he was instrumental in my transition from pro hockey back to college hockey so I have a great deal of respect for him and seeing how he has built that program at Sacred Heart,” Allain said. “I know we are going to have our hands full and I will compete with every fiber of my being, but if C.J. is successful than I will be OK with that.”
Marottolo was an assistant at Yale from 19962009 as he worked for both Tim Taylor and then Allain before taking over at Sacred Heart in 2009.
“It is an interesting matchup for sure and I have a lot of respect for Keith,” Marottolo said. “He is a great friend, I talk to Keith a lot during the year about ideas, we go back and forth talking hockey. His teams always play fast, they are strong on the puck and they play the right way. I learned a lot when I was Keith all the things that he took from the pro game and he instilled back into the college game. It is a player’s game and that is what he taught me a lot that he can’t take away the game away from the players so I owe a lot to Keith and looking forward to that matchup, it will be a fun night.”