page_title: Hockey East
section_title: Conference arenas
hierarchical_section_title: Hockey East / Conference arenas
caption_attribution_description: Map of Hockey East members beginning with 2017-18.
context_page_description: The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.
  Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for men's hockey when most of its current members split from what is today known as ECAC Hockey, after disagreements with the Ivy League members. The women's league, the WHEA, began play in 2002.
  On October 5, 2011, the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish announced they would be joining Hockey East as the conference's first non-New England school in 2013 after the CCHA folded. On March 22, 2016, Notre Dame subsequently announced their men's hockey team would leave Hockey East for the Big Ten Conference at the start of the 2017-2018 season. The University of Connecticut and Hockey East jointly announced on June 21, 2012 that UConn's men's team, then in Atlantic Hockey, would join the school's women's team in Hockey East in 2014.
context_section_description: The XL Center has a hockey capacity of 15,635, but UConn caps ticket sales at 8,089.
caption: Hockey East membership beginning in 2017–18.  
  Holy Cross (in green) joined the women's league in 2018-2019.
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