College Hockey Heads To Boston's Holiest Sports Cathedral

The idea of an outdoor hockey game is enough to melt even the stodgiest, stubborn old timer. Anyone who played the game remembers what it was like to skate on a frozen pond for the first time, and the backyard rinks that dotted the home region allowed kids to live out their Stanley Cup dreams while their parents excused bed times for just a few minutes longer. The frozen breath, the crisp air, the glare off the ice provided by sunshine or overcast skies - they're all part of the winter experience that brings hockey players back to a time when the game was about more than a win or a loss.

The sheer volume of outdoor games in recent years made it more commonplace to experience those highs, and forcing hockey into unorthodox or non-traditional settings in places like Texas or California made it feel like they had run their course, but on Saturday night, Fenway Park's bright lights will continue returning the game to its roots when Boston College and UMass play an outdoor game on the same rink as the NHL heroes who participated in last week's Winter Classic.

"I was a big Red Sox fan growing up," said Schiller Family Head Coach Greg Brown, "so [Fenway Park] was my memory and my youth. Then when you have each of those four games at Fenway that we had, they're all very memorable in their own way. So I have fond memories of those, and I'm really looking forward to getting back out there. It's an altogether different experience than your normal hockey game."

"The chance to play outdoors, especially in front of friends and fans, I'm really excited," said sophomore forward Connor Joyce, a Dedham, Massachusetts native. "I think we just have to go out and play our game. Obviously it's going to be a little crazy, but for us, just trying to stay within our game, [it's important] to do what we know we can."

Fenway Park itself is the most paradisal setting for any event taking place in Boston or the greater New England region. It opened in 1912 but has since transformed into the community chapel for legions of local sports fans as the only home for the modern Boston Red Sox. Its evolution brought new graphics boards and concessions to its frame over the course of its 100-plus year existence, but walking up a tunnel exposes locals to the same grounds patrolled by their fathers, grandfathers and now great-grandfathers who once took trolley cars to watch baseball in the shadow of its quirky dimensions.

"Being natives from around here, it's almost going to help us in that situation," said forward Cam Burke, a graduate transfer from Notre Dame and a native of Boxborough, Massachusetts. "I know my family makes it to most of the games, so that'll be a bit familiar, but playing outdoors is very, very special. We're excited, and I think after that first shift or two, we'll settle into feeling like it's just another game."

"I probably end up at two or three Red Sox games per year," said Joyce. "Some people in my family are always able to get tickets, and I love going to the Sox games. Especially with it being a summer sport, I don't think I'm ever really thinking about hockey while I'm there. It's just nice weather, and it's nice to be there in Boston."

It was the home of the 2010 Winter Classic and is remembered for Marco Sturm's overtime goal that helped the Boston Bruins defeat the Philadelphia Flyers, and after the first two editions in Buffalo and Chicago, the emotional win and the introduction of a hockey-based festival turned the event into something bigger than a standard regular season game. One week after the Winter Classic, Boston College and Boston University engaged in another memorable rivalry matchup before a second sellout crowd of 38,472 fans. The Eagles lost, but the near comeback after the Terriers pulled ahead by a three-goal lead was a seminal moment in another historic rivalry - and a moment that impressed and defined the next generations of college hockey players from around the region.

"As a coach, I feel like we were able to appreciate it more," said Brown. "When we looked around the walkout as a player, you're peeking up and seeing [Fenway] and it's cool, but it's a big game for the team. For me, it was a surreal, very cool experience. The players probably take it in quickly, but they have to enjoy it more after the game. The experience, that it was a sellout when we played BU, was incredible."

"I think ever since the beginning of the year, when we heard that this Frozen Fenway match was going to be played, it didn't matter who it was going to be against," said Joyce. "I think everyone's really excited. Every summer, every guy on our team marked [this game] on our calendar."

Fenway Park has long evolved from a baseball stadium. An annual ACC bowl game hosted its first edition after COVID-19 knocked out the last two attempts to play a postseason football game, and historic Thanksgiving rivalries played on the makeshift gridiron in the years after Notre Dame's Shamrock Series game hosted Boston College. A former home for the New England Patriots, BC played Connecticut at Fenway in 2017 in a second game scheduled 60 years after the Eagles played home games in front of the Green Monster.

A constant stream of concerts have ranged from Bruce Springsteen to Foo Fighters to Dropkick Murphys to Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake. It was a boxing ring for local hero Tony DeMarco and a soccer pitch for Celtic, Liverpool, and A.S. Roma. In the aftermath of the Shamrock Series game, Galway and Dublin played in the Fenway Hurling Classic in 2015, 2017 and 2018, and in 2016, skiers and snowboarders got big air off of a 140-foot jump in the stadium's outfield.

Few things, though, top the sight of a hockey rink stretching across the infield, and nothing feels more local than a matchup between Hockey East teams. Boston College is long identified as one of the most historic programs in the nation, a Beanpot school grounded in the local Green Line and the years of John "Snooks" Kelley, Len Ceglarski and Jerry York. UMass is the more recent champion and the rising powerhouse with Greg Carvel behind the bench. Hobey Baker Award winners and national champions are part of both schools' legacies.

Three points are on the line, but this is bigger than a regular season hockey game. This is a chance at Boston city immortality and an opportunity to win a game at Fenway Park one week after the Boston Bruins won the Winter Classic. For college hockey players, it's the biggest game of the season and maybe the biggest moment of their hockey-playing lives, thanks to a venue that's arguably the holiest cathedral in the city's long, storied championship history.

"I was really lucky to go to the Winter Classic at Fenway [in 2010]," said Burke, "and I remember being in awe of the spectacle and just amazed at that environment. Then I was in high school when Boston College played Notre Dame at Frozen Fenway, so I was able to see BC play outdoors. I remember thinking that it would be really special to be a part of it, so it's kind of crazy that it's playing out right now."

"You can imagine what this is like for local kids," Brown said. "I'm sure they've all been to Red Sox games and know the history of the team and Fenway Park, and they've watched the Bruins when they had their games [outdoors]. I'm sure they'll all be a little sleepless the night before and just so excited to be a part of it."

College Hockey Heads To Boston's Holiest Sports Cathedral

Players Mentioned

Cam Burke

Connor Joyce

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