2011 IceBreaker Field

The 2011 Icebreaker was supposed to be back in St. Louis, but according to College Hockey Inc. it will instead be held in Grand Forks with North Dakota hosting Boston College, Michigan State and Air Force.

Each school has made multiple appearances in the Icebreaker. This will be the 4th for both BC and Michigan State, the third for UND and the 2nd for Air Force. Michigan State won the first Icebreaker, which was held in 1997.

Each school has winning tradition as well of course. The schools have 14 national championships among them. UND has half of those, with BC having four and Michigan State the remaining three. Not to take a huge backseat, Air Force has enjoyed recent success as well, nearly knocking off Minnesota in a first round tournament game in 2007 and then winning their first round game vs. Michigan in 2009.

The Icebreakers have traditionally been strong fields but this could be one of the strongest of them all (though both UND and BC are going to suffer big losses due to graduation and early signings this summer) and has the added bonus of being held at what College Hockey Inc. director Paul Kelly calls “one of the crown jewels of the game.”