Crab Pot Tournament
Slippery Rock Claims First Women's Crabpot Tournament
2010-09-29
Maryland-area ACHA teams hoping they have started a long and storied event for women's hockey.
The Crabpot Tournament started 33 years ago in Annapolis, Md., as a mid-season event hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy men’s hockey program.
The Crabpot, which was started as a take-off of the “Beanpot” college hockey tournament held in Boston every winter, has turned out to be a historical success on the ice and for the fans.
Maryland is known for its crab industry and abundance of crab restaurants. The state sits right on the Chesapeake Bay, which is one of the premier places in the world to harvest blue crabs.
On September 18 the women got in on the act as the first annual Women’s Crabpot Tournament was held -- and based upon the competitiveness of the tournament -- it appears another successful chapter in the history of the Crabpot has been started.
The first women’s Crabpot featured four ACHA M2 women’s team – three from the Maryland area (American University, U.S. Naval Academy and University of Maryland) and one (Slippery Rock) from outside the area. The teams squeezed all four games into one day at Ice World in Abingdon, Md., and any fans who attended were treated to nail-biting hockey.
In the first round Slippery Rock snuck past American by a score of 5-4 while Maryland claimed a 6-5 victory over Navy. In the Navy-Maryland game, the Terps took a 5-1 lead into the final period but Navy clawed back to tie the game and send it into overtime. An infraction for covering the puck in the crease gave Maryland's Marlee Finestone a penalty shot, which she buried for the game-winner.
Later in the day American claimed third place with a 4-3 win over Navy before The Rock took the title by stopping Maryland 5-4 in the title game. Slippery Rock was presented with the first-ever Crabpot trophy, which features an actual, silver crabpot on a wooden pedestal.
The Women’s Crabpot Tournament was sponsored by Mid Atlantic Hockey Academy, which was formed by Maryland head coach Aaron House. Mid Atlantic Hockey Academy was started, “To help women’s club players train during the summer so they return to their campuses … ready to help their teams right out of the gate,” said House.
“We decided to host the first annual Women's Crabpot tourney as a way to kick off hockey for teams here in Maryland,” said House. “Having only three women's teams we invited one team at-large, in this case Slippery Rock. Because SRU won the tourney they will be invited back next year to defend and the three local teams will obviously be back.”
House indicated there was no charge to any of the teams this season, and it was enough of a success that there are preliminary plans to invite Maryland high school teams next season for a prep bracket.
Similar to how the men's Crabpot tourney started, the seeds have been planted for the women's Crabpot and a long and historical run for women's ACHA hockey.