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The Boylston Cup: The newest college hockey rivalry on Comm. Ave.
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Photo courtesy of Emerson College hockey (from 2006)
Last night
Haven’t heard of it? You may not be the only one, but now is your chance to get familiar with the local college club hockey teams.
The Berklee IceCats were founded in 2006, shortly after the Emerson Lions club team was re-established in 2005, after an almost 10-year absence due to lack of player participation. Now the two teams make up the most heated college hockey rivalry within the city limits since BU and BC.
Local college hockey aficionados may remember an article written by Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe back in December 2006 chronicling the rise of the club hockey team at Berklee College of Music. Berklee isn’t known for their athletics, in fact there is not one NCAA affiliated athletics program at the school of roughly 3,900 students. If students want to participate in NCAA Division III athletics they have to get a waiver to play on the teams at
When you have student athletes from a school not known for their athletics, but more for their specialized programs in music and media arts, it makes for an interesting situation. The students who make up the teams play for love of the game and work incredibly hard to keep the programs afloat.
The irony of Berklee students signing on to play college-level sports at Emerson is the contention between the Berklee and Emerson club ice hockey teams, who are in no way affiliated with one another. And they like it that way. For the past three years the two teams have met in the Boylston Cup, and the games get pretty intense to say the least. Last night’s game at BU’s Walter Brown Arena was no exception.
Emerson got the scoring started in the first period, but Berklee added a first period goal of their own to take a 1-1 tie into the first intermission. Scoring broke open in the second period for the IceCats and it looked as though the game would turn into a blow-out. But the Lions battled back to within one goal late in the third period to make the score 6-5. However, an empty net goal in the final seconds of the game dashed any hopes Emerson had of winning their first Boylston Cup.
If there was any doubt that the Boylston Cup is indeed a big event for the two schools, the almost 400 fans in attendance last night would have you think differently. With signs and snare drums in hand, the fans cheered and traded pleasantries until the final buzzer. The two teams rely heavily on student and fan support for their success as each program is run almost primarily on student-raised funds. Any support is greatly appreciated.
So, next time you are looking for a hockey game in the area, consider checking out some of the local college club teams. Some other local colleges with club hockey teams include Bentley, Tufts and
For more information regarding the Emerson Lions and the Berklee IceCats:
