Over the weekend the University of Washington and Washington State University club hockey teams held their annual Apple Puck game at the Toyota Center in Tri-Cities. The Huskies left with a dominant 10-0 win over the cougars in front of 4,742 people. This game marks the first time a club team has played in a stadium in the state.
Neither team is considered a varsity sport by their school, operating in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) as opposed to the NCAA, and are typically student-ran. That doesn’t stop these teams from garnering sponsors, coaches, and trips across the country to play against other schools.
Washington state has a few additional teams in the league including: Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, Western Washington University. They compete in the Pacific-8 Hockey Conference, made up of schools in Washington and California.
UW is currently ranked second in their conference behind UC Berkeley. The championship will be January 6-8 at the Eastern Washington University Rec Center in Cheney, WA.