WORCESTER, Mass. - The Holy Cross men's ice hockey team is finally going to be able to hit the ice for meaningful games.

The team is one of only four teams on campus currently and is going to be competing in the school’s first athletic competition of the academic year.

Head Coach David Berard is excited to be able to get back behind the bench. Their first opponent Army is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak on campus and had to postpone their weekend series.

So the Crusaders scheduled games with Long Island University [LIU], the newest team in Division 1 college hockey.

Berard said, “It’s going to be a fun game to coach because we are going to be making in-game adjustments all over the place. Typically you play a team -- either the coach has been there or you have video from the year before. If it's during the season you have more footage of the weekend before. So you have a pretty good framework of what the other team is going to do. LIU, we have none of that just because they are a first year program."

Holy Cross will face LIU twice this week: on Thursday, November 19 at 6 PM to open the season, as well as on Sunday, November 22 at 4 PM.

The Holy Cross women's team hosts the University of Maine both Friday and Saturday night at the Hart Center to kick-off their Hockey East season.

Image credit: goholycross.com