Holy Cross Crusaders Hockey (Atlantic Hockey America) @ Hart Center at the Luth Athletic Complex (Worcester, MA)

Or "What happens when you go to a college RIGHT BEFORE Thanksgiving"

*This trip occurred on November 21, 2023. However, I must admit that it is WEIRD having a college hockey team open their home schedule on a Tuesday (as they are doing this year)...and they're not the only ones in this "catch up".

Also, I don't have a (usable) photo of the arena for this post sadly.

Similar to Merrimack, I’m willing to bet that you’d never heard of the College of the Holy Cross unless you went there or knew someone who did. It’s a small Catholic school (run by the same Catholic order in charge of Boston College) in the southern parts of Worcester, MA, and I’ve been there many times since they host a summer collegiate baseball team from May to August that, IMO, is a fun watch (and less expensive/stressful than the WooSox - more on them in the future perhaps). While they're probably not the most well known school out there, they are the only school in Massachusetts with an NCAA Basketball championship, which they won back in 1947 with their most famous alum: Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy¹.

Outside of their NCAA Basketball championship, there's not much to say about them sports wise - they do have a baseball championship however, and the hockey team (i.e. what this post is about) has a few conference titles, but is probably most famous for a 2006 NCAA Hockey tournament upset of the second ranked team in the country.

The program started as a D-II program, then dropped to D-III when D-II abandoned hockey. In 1999, the Crusaders became a D-I program with the founding of the MAAC Hockey conference - a conference which eventually disbanded due to several of its members discontinuing their hockey programs. The remaining teams created a new conference called Atlantic Hockey, which merged with a women's conference in 2024 to become Atlantic Hockey America (and thus killing off the most Netscape Navigator-era-coded logo for ANYTHING you will ever see).

The arena here is an athletic complex with both the hockey rink and a dedicated basketball arena right next to each other and sharing a lobby. However, unlike Merrimack where hockey is the “main” arena and basketball is the smaller arena, it’s flipped here: the basketball arena is bigger than the hockey arena (and even has upper entrances), while the hockey arena is much, MUCH smaller.

All the seats here are on the “north” side of the ice - and most are available as General Admission for not that much (assuming you buy before the day of the game). There’s a bit of a catch though: it’s metal bench seating, and you're a bit removed from the rink (if you like being on the ice, the area around the rink has standing spots). If you’re willing to spend a little bit more, however, you can get reserved seats near center ice which entitles you to a seat cushion. If you do plan on getting one of these reserved seats, be aware that the last row of one of these sections is a bit uncomfortable due to being backed up against a wall.

Unlike most Massachusetts college hockey rinks, the benches are both on the same side of the ice - the one with the seats (i.e. the “north” side). The benches seemed smaller than normal hockey benches, however, and if that is so (I don’t actually know) it’s for a good reason: the penalty boxes. Usually, when the benches are both on the same side, the penalty boxes are on the opposite side of the arena; here, they’re actually between the benches!

Also, I’m pretty sure the locker rooms are right underneath the seats, so be prepared to potentially smell hockey players...

Before I end this, I should probably mention that the school’s women’s hockey team (whom I haven't seen) is in Hockey East - supposedly, part of what’s holding the men back is the arena (it's only got 1,600 seats). While they could probably go the UConn route and play at the DCU Center², losing to one-win teams (i.e. what happened when I went) does not seem like it would be conducive to jumping to a much more competitive conference...

MERCH

It’s hard for me to discuss merchandise for Holy Cross, as I can’t rate the merch selection at the game I went to since there was literally NONE. The game I went to was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and the staff seemingly didn’t know how to prepare: not only was there no merchandise (though they appeared to have a kiosk), but the concession stands had to close early because they ran out of food...

I ended up getting a puck from the bookstore some time later.