{"id":655,"date":"2019-03-20T22:10:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T22:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/03\/20\/2019320bringing-the-frozen-four-to-hamden\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:35:05","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:35:05","slug":"2019320bringing-the-frozen-four-to-hamden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/03\/20\/2019320bringing-the-frozen-four-to-hamden\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing the Frozen Four to Hamden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quinnipiac University prepares to host national women\u2019s ice hockey tournament.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Quinnipiac will be hosting the Women\u2019s Frozen Four for the second time in the last five years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)<\/span><\/a>  Women\u2019s Frozen Four<\/span><\/a> has returned to Hamden. Quinnipiac University<\/span><\/a> will host the national women\u2019s ice hockey championship for the second time since its original debut at bobcat nation in 2014.<\/p>\n

Although the Quinnipiac women\u2019s ice hockey team didn\u2019t qualify to make an appearance in this year\u2019s tournament with their regular season performance, the staff at the People\u2019s United Center is gearing up to make this year\u2019s Frozen Four one for the books.<\/p>\n

Quinnipiac is one of only four collegiate institutions to ever host the Women\u2019s Frozen Four according to Assistant Director for Athletic Communication Maggie Pruitt. The other three hosting institutions are the University of Minnesota<\/span><\/a>, Boston University<\/span><\/a> and the University of Minnesota Duluth<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could\u2019ve asked anybody to host this championship and we were fortunate enough to be able to have the opportunity, the privilege and the honor of hosting it,\u201d said Mary Alice Limperopulos, assistant director for marketing and fan engagement. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want fans, teams, administrators, media to leave saying \u2018Wow, Quinnipiac did such a great job\u2019 and I think especially since we\u2019ve hosted previously\u2026 the expectation, the standard we\u2019ve hit, we want to exceed what we did for ourselves before,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Quinnipiac athletic department officials began the process of becoming a host facility about five years ago, Pruitt said. She also said when it comes to deciding where the tournament will take place, having an arena that is the right size is key. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bidding process, you have to have a certain number of seats available in your arena,\u201d she said. \u201cThe aesthetic part of it is you want an arena thats big enough, but it can\u2019t be too big. Just because you want to appeal to the audience of women\u2019s hockey and a 15,000 seat arena is too big.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena<\/span><\/a> at the People\u2019s United Center <\/span><\/a>comes in at the perfect size with the ability to hold a maximum of 3,386 spectators. Though Quinnipiac is used to holding high-profile games, such as the famous \u201cYale game\u201d<\/span><\/a> (that features the rivalry of Quinnipiac and Yale University), the Frozen Four brings a new level of prestige. <\/p>\n

\u201c(This is) definitely bigger than the Yale game–it\u2019s a national stage. These are the four best teams that have come through the ECAC <\/span><\/a> and the WCHA (Western Collegiate Hockey Association)<\/span><\/a>\u2026 this is like the grand finale of the entire season,\u201d Pruitt said.<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\n

Though the NCAA dictates most of the operations and branding of the tournament, bobcat fans can still expect to see their favorite in-game events such as minigames in between periods and the infamous dance-cam. <\/p>\n

The marketing department in conjunction with NCAA will also feature official \u201cfan zones\u201d in the arena. These zones will feature brackets, photo props, past tournament winners and even give fans the opportunity to see and take pictures with the championship trophy. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want it to be the best product it can be and when people come here and they see Quinnipiac, see the People\u2019s United Center, we want them to leave having a great experience, having a great game experience whether that\u2019s fans, teams, athletes, media,\u201d said Pruitt.<\/p>\n

The tournament will take place March 22 through 24 at the People\u2019s United Center located on the York Hill Campus of Quinnipiac University. The semifinal round<\/span><\/a> March 22 will feature a faceoff between top ranked Wisconsin and No. 4 Clarkson as well as No. 6 Cornell against No. 2 Minnesota. The winners of the semifinal round will then advance to the championship March 24, at 2 p.m. EST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quinnipiac University prepares to host national women\u2019s ice hockey tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,6],"tags":[341,340,52,4],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-quinnipiac","tag-bobcats","tag-frozenfour","tag-hockey","tag-quinnipiac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2241,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions\/2241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}