Hating thy Neighbor

When it comes to measuring the intensity of a college hockey rivalry, a good place to start is geography. If you live in the midwest, you might bring up Michigan-Michigan State. They are an hour drive from each other, they share lots of national titles and a vast cultural divide.  New Englanders have Boston College and Boston University, perhaps the ultimate college hockey rivalry, with a mere 3.6 miles between Agganis and and Kelly rinks.  They divided 3 consecutive NCAA titles between them from 2008 to 2010.  Boston's Comm. Ave rivalry might be the poster child for NCAA border wars.

Does the St. Lawrence River ever thaw?

But how many conferences can boast three different pairs of rivals all within 15 minutes of each other? That title belongs to ECAC hockey, a conference that contains a trio of border skirmishers each with its own history and nuance.  First there is the North Country rivalry, Clarkson and St. Lawrence. They share a classic Route 11 commute between the two campuses, 10 frozen miles along the St. Lawrence River.  They've been hacking and whacking since 1925, creating a rich history whose halcyon days were in the early 1990's when they were both national contenders. Huddling inside 60 year old Appleton Arena with sub-0 temps outside is an annual rite in North Country, comparable to any scenes of pure winter depicted in Ken Dryden's masterpiece, The Game.

Yale hockey rivals? New Cat in Town

A fresher pair of rivals is Yale and Quinnipiac, blue collar Hamden versus the snooty academics from New Haven.  The Yale Bulldogs played in America's first intercollegiate hockey game vs Johns Hopkins in 1896, and have century-old rivalries with Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton and Cornell, yet it is the upstarts from Quinnipiac that has Keith Allain spitting mad. The Yale skip bolted the ECAC Hockey press conference in Atlantic City last year after being shut out by Q'piac in the tourney consolation game.  These are the greatest years in Yale hockey history, and despite their 2013 NCAA title win over the Bobcats, they have been getting repeatedly whipped by their neighbors, 11 miles down Whitney Avenue.  Yale-Quinnipiac is the ECAC version of BC-BU, and is certainly comparable in terms of entertainment.  The Bobcats ended the Bulldogs NCAA title defense last month in a nasty game that started off chippy and ended in violence. Forget the Ancient 8, when it comes to Yale hockey rivals, it's now Quinnipiac that has the attention of the Bulldogs. Yeah, they fight like Cats and Dogs.

But it's the third of the ECAC Hockey neighborhood rivals that is the talk of the Frozen Four in Philly. Union College is 14 miles from their Capital District rivals at RPI.  Despite its Division II and III history, Union has long since shed the label of little brother to RPI, racking up a recent 10-game win streak over the school with 2 NCAA Championship banners. Not only do they play each other home and home, but they clash annually in a high-profile Mayor's Cup game in Albany, one of the most popular events in a great hockey city.  The Capital of New York is a minor league hockey town, one in which the smell of beer and sight of blood is a frequent occurrence. As any college hockey fan with a YouTube account knows, the 2014 Mayor's Cup battle ended in a lusty brawl in which the coaches were the main event. It was as intense as anything from the days of the AHL River Rats, and as seen below, caused Union coach Rick Bennett to flash back to his 1991 season in AHL Binghampton. That year he earned plenty of his 200 plus PIMs banging guys in red uniforms in this very building.

The Cap district main urban centers of Schenectady, Rensselaer and Albany formed a Devil's triangle that weekend, as the two school converged on Albany, the home of the league offices and commissioner Steve Hagwell.  The Commish worked overtime that weekend in the Capital, handing out supplemental discipline to players and coaches on both side of the Mighty Hudson River. Face-to-face meetings with each perpetrator required less than a 15-minute drive for all parties involved.  The fact that Albany is a newspaper town, with two dailies competing for college hockey scoops, kept this "Capital Calamity" in the news cycle for days on end in January. College hockey rules in the Cap District.

6 teams, 3 passionate regional hockey rivalries, 1 very fortunate conference.  Here in Philadelphia, ECAC Hockey is looking to crown a second consecutive national champion from one of their passionate border rivalries. Familiarity breeds more than just contempt.

Rick Bennett: From the Mountain Top

Man on a Mission

Union coach Rick Bennett is having a grand 3-year ride on hockey's proverbial magic carpet, having gone 3 for 3 in the only ECAC Hockey conference tournaments he has coached, and punching his team's ticket to their second Frozen Four. His clubs have a 5-2 record in the NCAA's the last 3 seasons.  Here are the sentiments from one of the hottest coaches in college hockey. 

These were his official comments moments after beating his alma mater, and his former mentor Nate Leaman of Providence in the NCAA East Regional final last Saturday in Bridgeport..

"I guess because of my ties in Providence, it's a little bittersweet. I do appreciate President (Reverend Ryan) Shandley coming down to see me after. Bob Driscoll their athletic director coming down as well.  I am really fortunate. When you have a chance to work at two places, having the Presidents of both places back you–it's very special."

While Coach Bennett was making his statements, Union President Stephen Ainlay attended the crowded press conference with his wife, sitting next to his Athletic director Jim Mclaughlin and his wife.  They were all beaming the same joy and gratitude as their coach, the guy who can seemingly do no wrong. Even his on-ice acts of raw emotion and their subsequent 4-game suspensions have only strengthened and broadened his aura of faith: faith in the process, faith in his surroundings, faith in everyone associated with this very special Union squad.

"You're honored and you're humbled by it. We just happen to be that team. You know we're very fortunate and I am hoping we can just continue this ride."

Heightening his sense of gratitude was the fact that his latest victim is the man who helped put his magnificent team together, his predecessor Coach Leaman.  They spoke before the handshake line, but did not join it.

"We exchanged a few (words)....you know the heat of the moment. He wished us luck. Obviously he knows a lot of guys on the current team here for Union, helped recruit a lot of these guys so it's special bond for him. I just wanted to let him know that a part of him is a part of this team, too. Again, he gave me a second chance and I'll always appreciate that."

Leaman had nothing but platitudes for his protege. “To see the job Rick Bennett has done at taking the program to another level, you couldn’t be more proud.”

At the conclusion of the presser, the kings of Union's administrative team, McLaughlin and Ainley, huddled around Bennett, offering him comfort as well as praise.  "Maybe now you can get some sleep," said Ainley, drawing knowing laughs from the wives and Bennett himself. They all chatted in the pressroom, like the fond family they are now, seemingly oblivious to the tight confines. They lingered in the human warmth, as if they had no place more important to go, before heading out to bask in yet another major hockey accomplishment.

The End of "Easy A.C."

2013 NCAA tourney: ECAC Hockey private party

Rightly or wrongly, the ECAC Hockey Conference, formerly just E.C.A.C., has been considered the weak sister of the Division I power conferences, particularly by the traditional WCHA powers.  Judged by NCAA tourney results over the past 20 years prior to Pittsburgh, there is some validity to the teasing chant "Easy A.C."  Union's cinderella run to the 2012 Frozen Four was the first ECAC appearance in the national  semis since Cornell in 2003. The conference hadn't even had a national finalists since Harvard's victory in 1989, while rival conference Hockey East, all former ECAC members, claimed nine national championships in that time.   The ECAC is the conference of academic schools, most members with no athletic scholarships and vigorous academic standards, trying to compete against traditional hockey "factories" like BC and Minnesota.  The western schools start their practices nearly a month prior to the Ivy schools. ECAC Hockey is an "Easy" conference to root for, but not a wise bet. The snobs from Minnesota's Gopher Nation credited Boston College's national championships with all their  "Easy" wins against ECAC Hockey. Those fan sentiments were enshrined in one of the great parodies of all time prior to last year's NCAA tourney.


But the 2013 NCAA tourney was where it all changed. ECAC hockey treated last year's tourney as its own playground. As you all remember, Yale, the final team to make the NCAA field of 16, had a miraculous run in the west region, chopping down the vaunted Gophers and then doubling down by offing the Fighting Sioux.  The clever writers of the parody above were proved 100% wrong on each count, because while the greatest powers in the west were being slain in Grand Rapids, over in Providence reigning champion Boston College was cut down in surgical fashion by the Union College Dutchmen, an intellectual powerhouse with no Division I programs other than hockey.  The final score was 5-1 in a game that wasn't that close.  And the next day Union was blown out by conference rival Quinnipiac to set up the Frozen Four that thrust former weak sister ECAC Hockey into the spotlight.  That spotlight revealed more greatness in the form of two ECAC Hockey semifinal victories, one against Hockey East and one against the WCHA. Thanks to ESPN, the sporting world got to see Quinnipiac's version of the "Magnificent Seven," a world class goalie and a half dozen elite snipers. But they were solved in the final by Yale's brilliant coaching and goaltending to cap ECAC Hockey's NCAA party. A private party on college hockey's biggest stage.

Now there have been occasions of two schools from the same conference in the NCAA Championship, the 1999 NCAA's comes to mind.  But last year you can make a very good case that the ECAC Hockey team best suited to win an NCAA title, Union, wasn't even represented in Pittsburgh.  So any three of those ECAC Hockey teams could have won the 2013 NCAA tourney, as every traditional big name school and conference was decapitated by this conference of eggheads and short seasons.  And there is one startling factoid from the 2013 post season that will last at least as long as Joe Dimaggio's hitting streak or Ted Williams .406

The 2013 ECAC Hockey Tournament consolation game, an antiquated concept that has since been discontinued, was a preview of the NCAA championship game. Think about that for a second, the absurdity of ECAC Hockey riches from 2013.   The two NCAA finalists couldn't get to their own tourney's final.  And that's no fluke, because Brown was one of the hottest teams in the nation down the stretch last year, and they would have been another extremely dangerous team had they made the NCAA's.

If hockey fans haven't figured it out yet, the coaches have.  Jerry York, the loveably honest Dean of America's college hockey coaching fraternity, has stated matter-of-factly that going into the 2014 Frozen Four, his semifinal opponent, Union College, is the squad best-equipped to win this year's national title. It sure makes sense. This is Union's third straight run deep into the NCAA's, claiming big scalps in each rampage.  This school, this conference, is now the "Easy" team to pick.