European trips give teams an early start

Hidden among the typical summertime news, we’ve actually had actual college hockey teams playing actual hockey games.

Dartmouth and Quinnipiac have both taken advantage of an NCAA rule that allows teams to make a trip to play foreign competition once every four years.

Quinnipiac went to Italy and Switzerland earlier this month for four games against European pro competition, and Dartmouth is in the middle of a trip to the same two countries for three games.

Read up on Dartmouth’s trip here and see how Quinnipiac’s excursion went here.

NCAA rules allow for such trips once every four years during a vacation period for the school. Incoming freshmen aren’t allowed, and the team is limited to 10 games, none against other American teams.

The team gets 10 days of practice before the trip, and don’t think that isn’t a valuable early start to the season.

UPDATE: Adrian coach Ron Fogarty got in touch to mention that the Bulldogs also toured Italy and Switzerland this summer. Read about that on Adrian’s site here.