ECAC Championship Game Will Return to Lake Placid

After a three year-stint in Atlantic City, N.J., the ECAC Hockey Men’s Championship will soon return to the site of the most famous moment in U.S. hockey history.

The home of the “Miracle on Ice,” the 1980 Rink - Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y., will host the championship for at least three years starting in 2014, the ECAC announced on Tuesday.

“Lake Placid has always been one of the special hockey places in the U.S.,” said ECAC Hockey Commissioner Steve Hagwell in a press release. “The combination of the warm welcome from the surrounding community, aura of the venue, and general support will be easily absorbed by fans and students alike.”

From 1993-2002, Lake Placid’s Olympic Arena played host to the championship, which currently includes the semifinal and final rounds of the ECAC playoffs. In those 10 years, the Harvard men’s hockey team captured two league titles.

The 8500-seat 1980 Rink – Herb Brooks Arena is a considerably smaller venue than Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, which can hold 10,500 spectators for hockey games.

Boardwalk Hall will once again host the championship in 2013, when Harvard will look to capture its first league title since 2006. In the 2012 championship, the Crimson nearly completed an improbable late-season run, falling one win short of the elusive ECAC crown despite minimal expectations entering the year.