While some Georgetown students may know the mall in Ballston, Virginia solely as the unofficial chain-restaurant capital of the world (in all seriousness, the food court is amazing), others come for the breakneck speed and devastating hits. I’m talking about action on the mall’s eighth and top floor. Here, in the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Georgetown’s Club Ice Hockey team does battle.
Didn’t know Georgetown had a hockey team? Neither did many of its players when they first arrived on the Hilltop.
“When I came in as a freshman, I didn’t even realize we had a team,” senior co-captain Conor Hickton remembered. “And while we did, it was smaller and received far less funding than it does today.”
Over the last four years Hickton and his teammates have worked hard to transform the face of the program. One new improvement is the Georgetown Hockey Booster Club, a group of alumni and parents who provide logistical support with everything from fundraising to merchandise sales. The team now practices and plays home games at the Iceplex in Ballston, the brand new practice facility of the NHL’s Washington Capitals. They boast threads that would make Mr. Ducksworth want his own jersey, not to mention a roster that would make Gordon Bombay drool. In addition to Hickton, who hails from hockey-crazed Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania, many of the team’s 30 members starred for northeastern prep hockey powerhouses.
Sure enough, Georgetown has quickly become one of the most successful programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference Hockey League, which includes the likes of Duke, UNC, NC State, UVA, Virginia Tech and George Mason. The ACCHL is one of several leagues under the umbrella of the American Collegiate Hockey Association, which organizes club hockey into three divisions, which are then organized into regions. Georgetown consistently ranks among the top twenty teams in the Division II Southeast region. Last season the Hoyas won both the ACCHL regular season championship and postseason tournament en route to a 22-2 record, including a perfect 14-0 in league play.
“Our recent success and a growing talent base on campus have led to an increase in popularity,” Hickton said. “We’ve worked hard to make sure that Georgetown does have a team, and a pretty successful one at that.”
This season the Hoyas enter the playoffs with a record of 13-12-2; the team shared the ACCHL regular season championship with Duke.
Clinching a share of the title required a win last Friday night over NC State, a task the Hoyas were more than up to. Hickton kicked off the scoring early in the first period, the first of three goals for GU’s leading scorer. And while his hat trick failed to precipitate the surrender of any audience headwear, Georgetown’s home ice advantage was in full effect throughout the 7-4 victory. The Kettler Krazies, if you will, that oh so vocal group of Hoya hockey supporters, filed in group by group, each louder than the next, libations illegally stored in purses, backpacks and waistbands. Colorful signs dotted the boards, while cheers of adulation lauded Hickton’s deft puck handling and the punishing blows of defensemen Steve Russell and Brendan Surma. As these hundred or so students can attest, Georgetown club hockey has come a long way from virtual campus obscurity.
The Hoyas are back in action Friday, February 22 in Roanoke, Virginia for the first round of the ACCHL playoffs.
