The University of Massachusetts-Amherst Minutemen will take on the Cornell Big Red in the opening game at 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 29 followed by the Arizona State Sun Devils against the Clarkson Golden Knights at 7:30 p.m. The winners of the first two games will face off on Saturday, Dec. 30 for the championship at 7:30 p.m. while the losing teams will compete in a consolation round at 4 p.m.

Massachusetts is 11-4-1 and ranks 11th in the country, according to U.S. College Hockey Online’s Division I poll. The Minutemen play in the Hockey East Conference, while Arizona State is a Pac-12 school that plays as a Division I independent for men’s hockey. The Sun Devils, an NCAA Division I team since 2016-2017, will join the National Collegiate Hockey Conference starting in the 2024-2025 season. Arizona State is 11-3-4 and ranks 13th in the country.

Scott Morrow leads Massachussetts with 20 points, including 15 assists. The Minutemen’s top goal scorers are Jack Mussa and Aydar Suniev, who have seven goals each.

The Sun Devils are led by Lukas Sillinger who has a team-high 26 points. Matthew Kopperud and Tyler Gratton lead Arizona State with 11 goals each.

Cornell and Clarkson are both part of the ECAC Hockey conference, which hosts its championship tournament in Lake Placid every March since 2014, with the exception of 2020 due to the pandemic and 2021 when it was hosted at the People’s United Center, Hamden, Connecticut. Cornell lost to Boston University in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament last year, then opened the 2023-24 season with seven wins in a row. Clarkson held a 3-4 overall record going into regular season conference play that started Nov. 10. The ECAC Hockey Championships will take place March 22-23, 2024 at the Olympic Center.

The Big Red are currently 6-4-1 on the season and rank 17th in the NCAA D1 rankings. Cornell is led by Gabriel Seger, who has 14 points — eight goals and six assists.

The Golden Knights are 8-5-1 and are currently unranked. Ryan Taylor leads Clarkson with nine points including six goals. Clarkson has been to the NCAA tournament championship game three times — 1962, 1966 and 1970 — but has never won the title. Cornell won the NCAA championship in 1967 and 1970.

Arizona State made its lone NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019. Coached by Greg Carvel, now in his eighth season at UMass, the Minutemen reached the NCAA Tournament’s Frozen Four in 2019 and 2021, capturing the school’s first men’s hockey national title in 2021.

Single-day and two-day ticket options are available and can be purchased online. For more information, visit www.lakeplacidolympiccenter.com.