The Skidmore College ice hockey team won’t lace up its skates for league play until after Dec. 31.
The New England Hockey Conference Board of Directors voted to postpone the 2020 portion of this season’s conference schedule, it was announced Tuesday.
The decision fell in line with an earlier announcement by the Liberty League made last week that its winter sports competitions would not begin until after Jan. 1.
Skidmore competes in the NEHC with Norwich, Babson, Hobart, New England College, UMass Boston, Southern Maine, Castleton and Johnson & Wales.
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The Thoroughbreds were 11-11-4 overall last year, including 7-9-2 in league play. They fell to Hobart 4-2 in the first round of the NEHC playoffs.
“You can’t have all the other sports suspended and then say OK, but hockey is going to go,” Skidmore athletic director Gail Cummings-Danson said during a phone interview Tuesday. “It just made sense for all of us to follow suit to where we were with our other league winter sports to say no league competition through the end of December.”
According to the press release from the NEHC, the league is working on conference schedule models with its participating administrators and coaches for contest that could occur after Jan. 1.
Traditionally, Skidmore would begin non-league competition in late October with its first NEHC contest held in early November.
Locally, Union and RPI in play ECAC Hockey. That league has not yet announced any decision or issued a 2020-21 schedule.
Reach Stan Hudy at [email protected] and follow on Twitter @StanHudy.
Categories: -Sports-, College Sports, Saratoga County
