The Huskies men's ice hockey program began in 1960 under head coach John Chapman. UConn began NCAA competition at the NCAA Division III level in the ECAC East.[4]
Prior to 1998, the Huskies played all home games outdoors at a partially enclosed rink on-campus near Memorial Stadium. The UConn Hockey Rink had a roof but was open on the sides.[5] However, in preparation for the upgrade to Division I, the University built the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum. Construction began in 1996, and the first indoor home game for UConn was on November 7, 1998.[6][7]
The move to NCAA Division I status allowed the team to join other Husky athletic programs. In 1998 they joined the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, after previously playing for 38 years in the Division III ECAC East.[8] At the time, head coach Bruce Marshall was in his tenth season at the position. In its 2nd season in the 2000 MAAC Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, UConn beat Iona 6-1 to win its 1st league championship. However, due to a 2-year probationary period placed on the MAAC for an automatic bid to the NCAA Ice Hockey championship by the league champion, UConn was unable to participate in the NCAA tournament that year. It has been the only championship Uconn has won since moving to Division I. But when the athletic department was forced to remove all athletic scholarships from the sport in order to comply with Title IX,[9] and the Huskies consistently finished in the bottom few spots of the national computer rankings before the most recent season.[10] In 2003, the MAAC formed a new league called Atlantic Hockey.
In June 2010, the University announced that the team would face Sacred Heart at Rentschler Field in East Hartford on February 13, 2011, as part of a doubleheader also featuring a game between the women's team and the Providence Friars.[11] The Huskies won this game 3-1, in front of 1,711 fans. The Huskies also played their first ever game at the XL Center in downtown Hartford that year, though this was not originally scheduled. Due to heavy snow accumulation on the Freitas roof, the team's February 5 game against Army was moved to the off-camps arena, also home to the Connecticut Whale of the American Hockey League.[12] In spite of free admission, only 891 fans turned up on short notice to watch the Huskies lose 5-3.[13] As a whole, the 2010-11 season was also a major improvement for the Huskies, who advance to the Atlantic Hockey Tournament semifinals at Blue Cross Arena before being eliminated. They finished with a final record of 16-18-4. One of the major factors in the turnaround was the young recruits the Huskies had signed. Freshman Cole Schneider led the team with 32 points, while sophomore Sean Ambrosie finished second with 29.[14] Meanwhile, sophomore Garrett Bartus set a school record with 1,085 saves.[15] The 2011-12 AHA preseason rankings reflected the newly gained reputation, with the Huskies ranked fifth out of twelve teams.[16] The Huskies posted a winning record once again in the 2012-13 season.
On June 21, 2012, UConn announced the program would join Hockey East as the conference's 12th member beginning in the 2014-15 season.[17] Prior to the move into Hockey East, on January 7, 2013, head coach Bruce Marshall resigned after 25 years [18] and was replaced in interim by Asst. Dave Berard.[19] The season ended with a record of 17-13-4. The team finished 4th in the AHA, drawing a crowd of 1438 for their final home game of the season against Sacred Heart. As part of the move from Atlantic Hockey to Hockey East, the university added 18 scholarships for the men's ice hockey team and additional scholarships to existing women's sports programs to meet Title IX gender equity requirements.[17] The university also investigated options to significantly renovate the Freitas Ice Forum, which has a seating capacity around 2,000 fans, and mostly consists of metal bleachers; or build a new, larger ice arena on-campus.[17] As a new member of Hockey East, the team played home games at the 15,635-seat former NHL arena, the XL Center in downtown Hartford, with other select (home) games at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport. A study by the university projected a cost around $20,000 a game to play at the XL Center.[17]
Head coach Mike Cavanaugh, who spent 18 seasons as an assistant at Boston College, was hired to guide UConn into their new era of scholarship hockey in the Hockey East. He coached Uconn's final season (2013–14) in Atlantic Hockey to a record of 18-14-4, with wins over future Hockey East opponents Providence and Umass, while playing to a 2-2 draw with eventual 2014 NCAA Champ Union . Uconn made a successful transition to Hockey East in 2014-15 as they finished in the top 10 nationally in home attendance (5,396) while also leading their new conference . They were also competitive on the ice as their transition year resulted in 4 wins over top 20 teams while gaining ties with national championship game finalists Providence and Boston University. Starting in the 2015-16 season all home games were played at the XL Center, which drew a much better attendance per game (5,879) than those at the Webster Bank Arena (2,900) in which UConn appeared during the 2014-15 season.
Groundbreaking took place on May 22, 2021 to start construction for UConn's new $48 million ice hockey rink at the Storrs campus, for an opening in fall 2022. The 2,600-seat Toscano Family Ice Forum opened in January 2023 adjacent to the current Freitas Ice Forum in the Athletics District on Jim Calhoun Way. The team facilities will also include team lounges; dry locker area and locker rooms with video displays; training space with a hydrotherapy area; strength and conditioning room; and other areas such as coaches' offices. The new 97,300-square-foot facility will meet all NCAA Division I ice hockey requirements and all Hockey East regulations, which the Freitas Ice Forum does not.[20]
