For Immediate Release
Contact Dave Geringer, Sports Information Director, (508) 990-9651  [log in to unmask]
Tuesday, December 27, 2005					 

UMASS DARTMOUTH SET FOR CODFISH BOWL

NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA–The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s hockey team returns to action this week with the goal of going where they’ve never gone before.

For the first time ever, the Corsairs will participate in the nation’s second oldest collegiate hockey invitational tournament when they play Connecticut College Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at UMass Boston’s Clark Athletic Center. The host Beacons will play Southern New Hampshire in the nightcap Wednesday at 5. Thursday’s championship game at 7:00 p.m. follows the third-place game, which is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.

The game will mark the first time UMass Dartmouth has participated in a tournament since they won Fitchburg State’s UBS Face-Off Classic two years ago. They also won the Babson Thanksgiving Invitational in 2001-02. 

“We’ve had pretty good luck in our last two tournaments,” said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach John Rolli. “Thus us the first time we’ve ever been in the Codfish Bowl, and we’re thrilled to be playing in one of the marquee holiday hockey tournaments in the country.”

The Corsairs had to come back a bit earlier than usual to play in the Codfish Bowl. “We’ve had a short Christmas break,” said Rolli. “We’ve had two weeks between games, and normally it’s three or four weeks. The tournament begins a stretch of five consecutive games on the road, after which we’ll have played 11 out of our first 15 away from Hetland Arena.”

UMass Dartmouth and SNHU are the only teams in the tournament who have tasted victory this season, with the Penmen coming in with a 6-2-3 record and the Corsairs at 6-4-0. The Beacons are 0-7-1 this season, while Connecticut College is 0-8-0. 

Wednesday’s first game will mark the second consecutive time that UMD and the Camels have met. The Corsairs won, 4-2, at the Hetland Arena January 14th in both teams’ last game before the holiday break.

“Connecticut College is a very dangerous team,” said Rolli. “They have a dangerous power play, they know as much about us as we know about them, and I’m sure they’d like to avenge their loss to us. We’d very much like to make some noise in this tournament.”

UMASS DARTMOUTH HOCKEY