BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – What has been whispered about since late July became a reality on Thursday night.
The six Ivy League schools in the ECACHL and the two non-hockey schools, Penn and Columbia, voted unanimously to cancel all winter sports. It put schools that have fielded a hockey team for more than 100 years, in some cases, to take their teams off the ice for 2020-21.
The reason behind the decision is obvious, being due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the current uptick in positive cases and hospitalizations nationwide.
As they did last fall when seasons were shut down, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale will all not be playing games this season. Seven college teams in total have now canceled their season. They join R.I.T. which canceled their men’s and women’s programs on Monday.
Cornell, who was Number 2 in the nation last spring, and a prohibitive favorite as a Frozen Four finalist, was shut down last March, in the middle of the ECAC Tournament. The Big Red was expected to contend again this season, but many key cogs like Morgan Barron, who turned pro with the New York Rangers, and Matt Stienburg, who is now playing Junior A hockey in West Kelowna (BCHL) have departed.
Dartmouth hired a new head coach in the offseason. Reid Cashman, the former QU Bobcat player, and coach will see his debut postponed. Cashman left the NHL Washington Capitals, where he was an assistant coach to join Dartmouth.
The six non-Ivy teams in the ECACHL, Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Colgate, Quinnipiac, RPI, and Union, have not yet announced any cancellation of their respective seasons, but their conference is not going to operate.
Four schools are toying with the idea of going in some non-aligned status and just play some games, but in what format or fashion, nobody knows at this juncture.
Quinnipiac University in Hamden was set to play Sacred Heart University (AHA) of Bridgeport, but the campus itself is currently a red zone, with students leaving for Thanksgiving break. Nationally, it will vary, but students will not be back on campus until mid-January or as late as February 1st.
Yale University, which played the first intercollegiate hockey game against Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MD) on February 1, 1896, has played uninterrupted – even through both World Wars – when other schools took their seasons off. This streak will end an astounding run of 124 consecutive seasons.
Ironically, Clarkson University put out a schedule on Thursday. Union College had a game scheduled, against the Long Island University Sharks, the brand-new, 61st Division-I hockey program, that is scheduled to be a participating non-member of the AHA conference. RPI has not even been practicing according to local media.
RPI’s top goaltender, junior, Owen Savory, 23, is weighing his options to transfer to a school that will be playing or perhaps turning pro in the ECHL to get playing time.
Brown University has played every year since 1926-27.
Cornell’s first hockey game was in 1901. The program was disbanded for ten years from 1948 until 1958 and has been on the ice ever since.
Dartmouth has competed every season since 1905 with the exception of 1918-19 during the last pandemic, the great Spanish Flu.
Harvard University, which started play in 1898, has seen many of its top players depart prior to Thursday’s announcement.
Princeton University took some seasons off during World War II, but have competed fielded a varsity team ever since.
This winter none of them will be playing. Another sad milestone has been reached.
