Release from http://www.hockeyeastonline.com

September 28, 2001

Hockey East to Sponsor Women's Hockey
New league to begin play no later than the 2004-05 season


The athletic directors of the Hockey East Association have voted to
establish a Division I women's ice hockey league under the Hockey East
banner to begin play no later than the fall of 2004, it was announced today
by Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna. The vote took place Tuesday
afternoon during the annual Fall Meeting at the Andover Country Club in
Andover, MA.

The Hockey East Association was established as a Division I men's ice hockey
conference in 1983 and began league play in the 1984-85 season. The current
make-up of the league includes Boston College, Boston University, the
University of Maine, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the
University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Merrimack College, the University of
New Hampshire, Northeastern University, and Providence College. Tuesday's
motion to establish a women's league was passed without opposition.

Hockey East will join the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) and
the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) as the only Division I
intercollegiate ice hockey conferences for women. Currently, five schools
whose men's ice hockey teams play in Hockey East sponsor varsity women's ice
hockey. They are Boston College, Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern and
Providence, and all play in the ECAC.

"No organization in the country has done more for the development and growth
of women's ice hockey than the ECAC," said Bertagna, who served as ECAC Ice
Hockey Commissioner when the ECAC Women's League was formed. "But the growth
of this sport on both the men's and women's sides has created the current
situation where the needs of our student-athletes and our institutions will
be better served if all of our hockey programs are under the auspices of one
administrative body."

Bertagna cited the desire to ease scheduling problems and to share common
administrative policies as factors in the athletic directors' action on
Tuesday.

"We have a number of facilities that house both hockey and basketball," said
Bertagna. "And it is not unusual for the squads housed in these buildings to
receive their schedules from three different league offices. As purely a
practical matter, this decision will provide relief in a number of ways for
all conferences involved."

In addition to the five varsities, three other schools in the Hockey East
family operate women's club hockey programs. They are Boston University,
UMass Amherst, and UMass Lowell. The ninth Hockey East school, Merrimack
College, is exploring the possibility of adding a varsity women's ice hockey
program in the near future.

A task force will be established to assume responsibility for the formation
of the new league's policies and procedures. While the exact make-up of the
league will not be known for some time, all schools currently affiliated
with the Hockey East men's league will be afforded an opportunity to
participate as charter members.



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