ECAC Christmas Hockey Tournament
ECAC Christmas Hockey Tournament was an annual NCAA men's Division I ice hockey tournament held at the Boston Garden in Boston around the Christmas holiday from 1966 to 1972. It was preceded by a similar event, the Boston Garden Christmas Hockey Festival, which was held from 1963 to 1965.
Boston Garden Christmas Hockey Festival
The 1963 Beanpot final between Boston College and Harvard sold out the Boston Garden, with a few thousand more turned away. It was the third consecutive year that the Beanpot had sold out. On February 14, 1963, Boston Garden president Walter A. Brown and vice president and treasurer Edward J. Powers announced the creation of a college hockey festival that would take place that December. The Garden invited the city's four leading hockey teams as well as the University of Toronto and Minnesota. The festival would take place around the same time as the ECAC Holiday Hockey Festival in New York City. The first festival took place from December 20–21, and December 23, 1963. It was not a tournament, but instead a trophy was awarded to the most outstanding team. Harvard won both of their games and were declared the inaugural champion. Crimson defenseman Gene Kinasewich was awarded the most valuable player award.The 1964 festival was supposed to feature seven U.S. teams and one Canadian team. However, Colgate withdrew shortly before the event began and were replaced by Queen's University. Boston University over came a 3–1 deficit to defeat Queen's University 4–3 and were awarded the Boston Garden Bowl as the most outstanding team.
The third festival featured six teams. Toronto beat Northeastern 9–1 and Harvard 7–5 and were declared the most outstanding team of the festival. Ward Passi of the Varsity Blues was elected most outstanding player.