Boston University Terriers Women's Hockey (Hockey East) @ Walter Brown Arena (Boston, MA)

26 IN 26 STOP 2

*This trip occurred on January 17, 2026.

Before I dive into the specifics of BU's women's hockey team, I should probably give a few details about NCAA women's hockey as a whole (something I probably should've read more about before visiting Princeton...).

For starters, there wasn't an "official" NCAA women's hockey tournament until 2001. Prior to that, there were a number of schools that had women's hockey teams, but there was no "official" championship until 1997 (a tournament that technically wasn't NCAA sanctioned). Despite being around for about 25 years, the NCAA women's hockey tournament has only been won by five schools: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth, Ohio State, and Clarkson (a school in Upstate New York); all of them have multiple championships.

Hockey East started its women's conference in 2002, but Boston University wasn't one of its original members. While there was an existing club team for women's hockey, it wasn't until 2005 that the program became a D-I program (and thus joined Hockey East). They haven't won a national championship (again, only five schools have, and all of them are in states that touch the Great Lakes), but they have been to the national championship game twice - which is the same amount of finals as the rest of Hockey East combined¹. The school also doesn't have a Patty Kazmaier Award winner (the award for the best player in women's college hockey) despite having Marie-Philip Poulin - widely regarded as one of the best players in women's hockey today - as an alum². What they do have, however, is an arena all to themselves: Walter Brown Arena.

Walter Brown Arena opened in 1971, and is named after the original owner of the Boston Celtics (who retired the number 1 in honor of him). When it opened, Boston University's men's hockey team moved in from what eventually became Matthews Arena, and played here until they “outgrew” the just under 4,000 seats of the arena and moved (again) to Agganis Arena (where they play now). Coincidentally, the move occurred right when the women's team became a D-I program, so they basically got an arena all to themselves - something which is quite rare in D-I women’s hockey (case in point: it’s the only “women’s only” arena in Hockey East). Part of the reason the women got Walter Brown: it's part of an athletics complex which includes the school's basketball arena (which is on the top floor of the complex - leading to its nickname of "The Roof"). Also, fun fact: the arena (along with BU's soccer/lacrosse stadium) is on the site of the old Braves Field - where the now-Atlanta Braves played from 1915-1952³.

The most notable feature about Walter Brown - especially compared to Agganis - is the lack of end seating: ALL the seats here are along the sides, and the entrances to the arena are on BU's defend twice end. Each section in the arena has a "lower" and "upper" seating area; the "lower" area has individual seats, and the "upper" area is bench seating. The end with the entrance also has a lot of standing room, which in a sense, is fairly similar to the standing area in Bridgeport.

Also, old photos of the arena featured an old school electronic scoreboard, but in 2024, the building received massive upgrades - one of them replacing the scoreboard with a modern video board; in fact, the women's team spent half of a season at Agganis to accommodate these renovations. However, the strangest thing I found was in the men's bathroom, where there's a certain machine much, MUCH more likely to be found in a women's bathroom (but also urinals, so it's highly unlikely women are in there that often).

In a lot of ways, it's a minor miracle that this trip occurred AND that it's "26 in 26 eligible". I had intended to see the women back in December (along with one final visit to Matthews), but ended up being unable to due to a schedule mix up and a vintage market (which I only found out about that morning)⁴. In addition, I had made other plans for this weekend, but something came up which not only made those plans unfeasible, but opened up THIS opportunity. Tickets are rather inexpensive for hockey IMO, but do be forewarned if you want to come to a game: the Ticketmaster shenanigans are rather INSANE here...

This is not only the first time I've seen a Hockey East women's conference game, but in addition, it features the conference's sole women's only member: the College of the Holy Cross (the men are in Atlantic Hockey America)⁵. Apparently, the two schools have a rivalry trophy known as the "Turnpike Trophy" due to them being in the Patriot League for other sports; the winner is based on whichever school wins more events against the other across all sports (BU has won it every year its been contested, and it typically isn't close).

To my surprise, there was a band at this game (and only about a dozen other students). However, the crowd seemed a lot more behind Holy Cross, and the Crusaders ended up winning 4-2 - their first win in the Turnpike Trophy series this year. Before moving on, however, I should mention that this is the first college hockey game I've been to since I don't know when where they used the red/green lights behind the goals (the red lights signal that a goal has been scored, and the green lights signal the end of a period/intermission), and this arena also has one of the things I really liked from Agganis: Boston University's patented system for determining which end they're defending each period:

MERCH

There were only three open concession stands here: the "main stand" with "regular stadium food", a stand selling alcoholic beverages, and a Dippin' Dots stand, where you could get a novelty ice cream helmet! Here's the thing, however...that helmet was the only "merch" available at the game. There were two closed "stands" in the concourses that looked like they my have sold merchandise back in the day, but neither one was open (and there was one concession stand that was closed).

Of course, if you're looking for Boston University stuff, the bookstore isn't too far: it's basically right across Comm Ave (having moved there from Kenmore Square some time ago) and features a TON of hockey merch since it's BU's top sport. I thought about taking a look at it before the game, but opted not to due to cold and snow (though I've been there quite a bit in the past for jerseys and other stuff). I should mention, however, that I recall seeing things at the men's game I went to in 2023 that I never saw in the bookstore (and I'm not just talking about the media guide).

A few final notes on this trip:

1. I wanted to see Northeastern's men here since they were going to be playing a "home game"⁶ the day this was published and it was FREE ADMISSION, but then New England Winter decided to winter REALLY hard...

2. I had thoughts about visiting Providence College since they were home as well, but they were taking on Boston College which, for some odd reason, means WILDLY EXPENSIVE ticket prices⁷...