The Frozen Four will return to Boston in 2015 for the first time since 2004. Hosted by the Hockey East Association, the NCCA Division I Men’s Hockey Semi-Final and Championship games will take place on Thursday April 9 and Saturday April 11 at TD Garden.
Boston has played host to the Frozen Four on six previous occasions, with TD Garden as the site of the event in 1998 and 2004. Despite the long term success that Boston-area teams have had contending for the NCAA National Championship, holding the tourney in the Greater Boston area has not provided local schools with a great home-ice advantage, or for Hockey East squads in general.
The Frozen Four has been held on 13 occasions since 1960 in the Greater Boston area, including Providence, Rhode Island, with Hockey East squads emerging as champs on just three occasions; most recently 1995, when Boston U. topped Maine 6-2 in the championship game at Providence Civic Centre.
It has been three years since Merrimack made their one and only appearance in the NCAA Tournament; in 2011, when the Warriors were eliminated by Notre Dame in the Northeast Regional settled in overtime, 4-3.
The frozen four has gone from strength to strength and is starting to attract sports book attention of the like the NHL experiences. Come 2015 we can expect various different options to be available in the sports betting markets for the frozen four.
Hockey fans eagerly awaiting the launch of Merrimack’s NCAA Women’s Hockey program will be interested to learn that the 2015 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four will be hosted by the University of Minnesota.
The following year, the tourney returns to New England, according to a recent NCAA announcement, with the 2016 Women’s Frozen Four scheduled to be hosted by the University of New Hampshire at Whittemore Center Arena in Durham, NH.
It will be the fourth time the Frozen Four will be held at the Whittemore Center. The 6500-seat arena was previously the site of the Women’s NCAA Hockey Championship in 2002 and 2005.