Tournament information | |
---|---|
Sport | College ice hockey |
Location | Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Number of tournaments | 6 |
Format | Single-elimination |
Venue | SSE Arena Belfast |
Teams | 4 |
Current champion | |
Quinnipiac |
The Friendship Four is an annual mid-season college ice hockey tournament that has been held since 2015 at SSE Arena Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland with the winner receiving the Belpot Trophy. It is currently the only college ice hockey tournament to take place outside of the United States.
The tournament began as a way to foster stronger economic development, trade and investment, tourism, cultural exchange, and educational linkages between the sister cities of Boston and Belfast. [1] Each year four teams are selected to participate in the tournament which is typically held on the same weekend as Thanksgiving in the United States. As of 2019, all games have been played at the SSE Arena Belfast while all participating schools have come from the eastern region. While only two participating universities have come from Boston, many more have come from the same general region.
After the 2020 and 2021 series were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 Friendship Four was announced on December 4, 2021. [2] The series is set to continue in 2024. [3]
Year | Champion | Runner-up | Third place | Fourth place | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015 | Massachusetts–Lowell | Brown | Northeastern | Colgate | [4] |
2016 | Vermont | Quinnipiac | Massachusetts and St. Lawrence (tie) | [5] | |
2017 | Clarkson | Providence | Maine | Rensselaer | [6] |
2018 | Union | Boston University | Yale | Connecticut | [7] |
2019 | Northeastern | Colgate | New Hampshire | Princeton | [8] |
2022 | Quinnipiac | Massachusetts | Massachusetts Lowell | Dartmouth | [9] |
The 2024 Friendship Four will be contested between Boston University, Harvard, Merrimack, and Notre Dame. [10] In 2025, Miami, Sacred Heart, RIT, and Union will participate. [11]
The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of Massachusetts public university system and has been accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) since 1975. With 1,110 faculty members and over 18,000 students, it is the largest university in the Merrimack Valley and the second-largest public institution in the state. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
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Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell is a multi-purpose facility owned by the University of Massachusetts Lowell and located in Lowell, Massachusetts. The arena was opened on January 27, 1998, and dedicated to the memory of the late Paul Tsongas, prominent Lowell native and U.S. senator. The arena was built with $4 million in funding from both the city and the university, plus another $20 million contributed from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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The UMass Lowell River Hawks men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team that represents the University of Massachusetts Lowell. It competes at the NCAA Division I level in the Hockey East Association. The team competed at the Division II level until 1983. That year the University of Lowell was raised to D1 in hockey only and joined the newly formed Hockey East Association. Thirty years later with a name change to both the school and the team, the University of Massachusetts Lowell claimed their first Hockey East regular season title and HEA Tournament championship in 2013. The River Hawks made their first Frozen Four in 2013 as well. UMass Lowell would repeat as Hockey East champions in 2014 and then again in 2017.
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The 2022 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament was the national championship tournament for men's college ice hockey in the United States scheduled for on April 7–9, 2022. The tournament involved 16 teams in single-elimination play to determine the national champion at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the highest level of competition in college hockey. The tournament's Frozen Four—the semifinals and finals—were hosted by Hockey East at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
Connecticut Ice is an annual ice hockey event celebrating the tradition and progress of youth and amateur hockey in the state of Connecticut. The three-day event is headlined by a four-team tournament with participation from all of the state's four Division I programs: Connecticut, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart and Yale.
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The 2021–22 UMass Lowell River Hawks Men's ice hockey season was the 55th season of play for the program, the 39th season competing at the Division I level, and the 38th season in the Hockey East conference. The River Hawks represented the University of Massachusetts Lowell and were coached by Norm Bazin, in his 11th season.
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