Holy Cross hockey could be moving to Hockey East, DCU Center

WORCESTER — The biggest hockey fight in the city’s history may be about to break out.

According to multiple sources, Holy Cross has been approached about replacing Notre Dame in Hockey East when the Fighting Irish leave after this winter. That move would require the Crusaders to play their home games at the DCU Center.

And in the event the change in leagues occurs, Holy Cross would be sharing the building with the new Worcester Railers of the ECHL.

The Railers are scheduled to begin play in October, 2017.

“We became aware of it (Monday),” said ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna, “and we’re very concerned about it. Beyond that, we don’t care to comment further.”

Neither Holy Cross athletic director Nathan Pine nor Railers owner Cliff Rucker would comment about the Crusaders’ possible move to Hockey East and the DCU Center.

Sandy Dunn, general manager of the DCU Center, referred all questions to Holy Cross. However, in an interview during the NCAA hockey tournament in the building in March, Dunn was asked if the DCU was ready to play host to the Crusaders should they need a bigger home.

“We definitely are,” she said, “and we’ve had those conversations with (athletic director Nathan Pine). If that ever becomes something he’s looking at, then we will figure it out and make it work.

“We did the Princeton game this year, and next year he’s looking to bring two hockey games and hopefully a basketball game as well. There were many years when you go back to the 1980s and ‘90s when Holy Cross positioned us a recruiting tool for them, and I told Nate I’ll be happy to paint a locker room purple.”

This year, the Holy Cross hockey team will play Providence College on Oct. 15 and Boston College on Oct. 22 at the DCU Center.

Dunn added in that interview that the presence of the new ECHL team will have no effect on the building’s ability to handle more hockey or basketball.

The DCU Center’s ability to handle more hockey does not seem to be in question, but the ability of the Central Mass. market to handle more hockey is unknown. Worcester was a marginal market for pro hockey when the AHL IceCats and Sharks were in town and has never had a local team in Hockey East, which is big-league college hockey.

Rucker has  invested millions of dollars in bringing the expansion Railers to the city and just this week hired a new general manager-coach in Jamie Russell.

One hockey source suggested that the ECHL would have had serious concerns about granting Rucker an expansion franchise if the league knew it would be going head-to-head with a Hockey East team in terms of marketing and scheduling.

Rucker is also involved in building two new rinks in the Canal District; he has purchased a building across from the DCU Center to use as a restaurant and bar in conjunction with the team; and is committed to buying property to house Railers players.

Pro hockey and high-level college hockey have shared cities before and the results have been mixed. It did not work in Lowell, where UMass-Lowell survived at Tsongas Arena and the AHL did not. Yale thrived in New Haven, but pro hockey did so poorly the city eventually razed the rink there.

The AHL's Providence Bruins and Hockey East's Providence College have coexisted in Rhode Island, though PC plays its home games at Schneider Arena and the Bruins at the Dunkin Donuts Center. American International College is going to play its home games at the MassMutual Center in Springfield this year, sharing the building with an AHL team, the Thunderbirds.

Holy Cross currently plays in the Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) using the Hart Center as home ice. That rink seats 1,600 and the minimum capacity for Hockey East is 4,000. A move to Hockey East would also require Holy Cross to elevate its women’s program, which currently plays in the New England Hockey Conference.

Last week, the AHA voted to increase its scholarship limit to 18 from 14 - 18 being the maximum allowed by the NCAA.

Worcester Civic Center Commission Chairman John H. Budd said Wednesday that he was not aware of Holy Cross’ potential entry into Hockey East until asked about it by a reporter.

“I think it would be good for the building,” Budd said, “and hopefully it would be good for both teams.”

In terms of approving the Crusaders’ use of the DCU Center as home ice, Budd said, “Other than to give general approval to it happening, the details are worked out by Sandy Dunn and the city. We do have an oversight role to make sure that it’s good for the building to go ahead.”

City manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. did not return calls seeking comment. Hockey East officials had no comment.

— Contact Bill Ballou at william.ballou@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillBallouTG.