Princeton Tigers Hockey (ECAC Hockey) @ Hobey Baker Rink (Princeton, NJ)

Back-to-back nights at a hockey landmark

Originally, I had a blurb here about the history of Princeton University, as this was going to be my first trip down. However, since I ended up going to a soccer game a few weeks before this game, it got moved to there. I ALSO had a blurb about the ECAC here as this trip was originally going to occur prior to the Harvard post, but in case you couldn't tell...it didn't.

With those notes out of the way, on to our feature presentation: Princeton hockey!

Long time readers will notice that this post is formatted slightly differently than my usual "trip reports". That's because this post is covering two different games featuring two (kinda sorta technically) different teams that happened on different dates: one for the men's team, and one for the women's team!

I linked the Harvard post above, but as a quick refresher: Princeton is a member of the Ivy League, which does not officially sponsor hockey. Its hockey schools are members of the ECAC, but contest a "hockey championship" via head-to-head results (which the league tracks on its website FWIW), and typically start their seasons well after the rest of the country (including non-Ivy ECAC members - though I believe this is the case for all sports). What I probably should have mentioned back then is that this applies to both men's and women's hockey programs; in fact, I recall hearing about how Harvard's long time women's hockey coach got "taken down" by a BEVY of behind-the-scenes scandals around the time I visited back in 2023.

With that little note out of the way, I'd like to give SOME structure to this as it's going to get a little "buck wild", so I'm going to start by telling the story of

SELECTING THE GAMES

My original plan was to go to the men's "official" home opener on Halloween (a Friday)¹, but something came up and I didn't feel like trying to get out of it, so I pushed back a day to November 1 (a Saturday). In doing so, I decided to check the women's schedule and found out that they were home on both October 31 AND November 1st. However, while parking for hockey games (and other athletic events) is free (one of the big reasons I keep going to Princeton BTW), the lots around the arena are not open to the public until 4 PM on weekdays, which solidified the decision to go on the 1st (the women's games on both dates started at 3, so I'd have to get creative if I went on Halloween).

I bought a ticket a few weeks in advance for the men's game...but then something ELSE came up. Not wanting to miss out on that, I pushed this trip back again to the 15th, as both teams were once again home that day (the 8th COULD HAVE worked, but I REALLY wanted to see Brooklyn FC that day for reasons mentioned in that post). However...I decided that I wanted to check out Princeton Football for several reasons, and the timing of their game clashed with the women's game (a 12 noon start for a 3 hour football game vs. a 2 PM start for the women's hockey game), so I ended up going to the women's game the night before (as they were home that night but the men weren't).

Now, let's talk about the historic home shared by the two teams:

HOBEY BAKER RINK

Opened in 1923 and named after quite possibly the school's most famous hockey alum (for reasons I'll elaborate on in a sec), Hobey Baker Rink is set to become the oldest arena in college hockey (and, from what I can tell, the United States in general), as the only building older than it is slated to be closed and demolished (more on that story soon). Thanks to its age, it features a HIGHLY unusual design by modern standards - and to help explain all of this, you're about to see more photos than I usually put into these posts.

First of all, while Princeton's football and soccer stadiums are part of a larger "sports complex", Baker is NOT. It's in a different part of campus (with its own parking garage), and is a short walk away from a commuter rail station. Parking at said station is NOT free (even on weekends I THINK), but since very few games clash with the "no parking before 4 PM on weekdays" situation (and sadly, they're usually women's games), it's not really that significant (plus it's further).

As you approach the building from the parking garage and/or train station, you're greeted by this:

The box office/ticket windows require you to line up/stand outside the arena to "use" them. This is more akin to most outdoor stadiums today, but is rather strange for an indoor arena (and it's not even the only one in the Ivy League that has this). However, what's more unusual is how the building is laid out.

When you arrive at the ticket windows, there are two doors on either side. These serve as the entrances to the arena for (most) fans arriving at games (due to them being adjacent to the parking garage and box office), but these are CLEARLY "add-ons" from who knows when - the entrances to the seating sections appear to be entrances to the building, and feature images of famous Princeton alumni in their "windows". Based on what I've seen of the building historically, however, it is possible that these entrances used to be windows before being converted:

The areas outside these entrances are basically hallways with with greenhouse-style glass (according to this article I found, the glass was added in the 1980s). There's no way through the seating bowl without either these or walking through seats, as supports for the roof are present between the entrances. One of these hallways (on what ends up being the "north" side of the ice if you're watching on TV) has physical doors in the entryways; they were closed for the women's game, but open for the men's game (possibly because they were trying to only use the other hallway). Here's the "north" hallway (i.e. the one with doors) during the women's game (thus the darkness outside the glass):

At the "far" end of the building (i.e. the one opposite of the entrances/box office) is an area with concessions and a few cool displays of Princeton's history (and a LOT of plaques). Above this concession area is upper deck seating (which is somewhat rare in college hockey arenas); I thought about getting a ticket here for the men's game, but ultimately opted to be (almost) rinkside (though the view was cool - if a bit obstructed). Speaking of seats...be forewarned that it's 100% bench seating here. The benches all have backs with individual "seats", however, so that is nice if you're concerned about the lack of support (though the upper deck lacks this; I should also note that it is NOT easy getting down to the seats up here).

Also, as you may have noticed from the photo, there's no video screens ANYWHERE inside; while there might be other D-I hockey schools without video boards, this is the only one I know of (with conference rival Yale getting a new video board recently). I'm guessing that this is a "personal" decision by the university, as the building has been renovated MANY times over the years - most recently in the summer of 2025.

One last note about Princeton hockey overall before we dive into the games themselves: the awards for the best college hockey players are both named after Princeton alumni. The men's award is the Hobey Baker Award (another reason he's probably Princeton's most famous alum), while the women's is the Patty Kazmaier Award². Likely due to this, banners commemorating the two are inside the arena (on the wall with the box office), both featuring the message "MAKE _____ PROUD" with the name of the corresponding player in the blank. While I assume they're meant to honor the awards and inspire the players, I also feel like they give off "DONIT FORGET YOU'RE HERE FOREVER" vibes...