Quinnipiac withdraws from Bridgeport's Frozen Holiday Classic

Last month, Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold was part of a press conference at Bridgeport's Webster Bank Arena to announce the inaugural Frozen Holiday Classic in December. UConn, Sacred Heart and Union would round out the field for the Dec. 27-28 event, which organizers hoped would lay the foundation for a all-Connecticut tournament.

Turns out Quinnipiac didn't realize its schedule for the upcoming season was already booked.

So Quinnipiac, about two weeks after the media event, made phone calls to Webster Bank Arena officials and the other participating schools to apologize and formally withdraw.UMass Lowell was secured as the Bobcats' replacement.

"There was a lot of miscommunication on our end," Quinnipiac athletic director Jack McDonald said Thursday. "We misread our situation. We had other commitments and weren't going to be able to pull it off. It's our fault."

According to McDonald, Quinnipiac overlooked a two-year, four-game contract with St. Cloud State that begins this season. The Bobcats are at St. Cloud this season for a two-game series; St. Cloud returns the trip to Hamden in the 2015-16 season.

Whether the Frozen Holiday Classic endures beyond this year is unknown. A call to Howard Saffan, president of Webster Bank Arena, wasn't immediately returned.

According to a press release after the April 14 media conference in Bridgeport, Yale was set to join the three other Connecticut teams in the second annual Frozen Hockey Classic, set for 2015. That statement was inaccurate. Yale senior associate athletic director Wayne Dean said Thursday Yale is considering joining the field. But its schedule appears to be booked for 2015-16, and it hasn't committed to the Classic for any future dates yet.