Fenway ice fest shouldn't forget female pucksters

Wednesday morning's Boston Globe lacquered yet another coat of hype on the prospect of Fenway Park playing host to the next NHL Winter Classic, ostensibly a Bruins-Flyers tussle to be conducted on New Year’s Day. But this time, reporter Kevin Paul Dupont tossed in this added bonus: “Look for the colleges to take the Fenway ice one week later, Jan. 8, with the likes of Boston University, Boston College, Providence, and Vermont in a Hockey East mini-tournament.”

Naturally, he was referring to the men’s programs of those four institutions, but it ought to cue others to start vying to rent a little ice time on the Yawkey Way pond themselves. It has been said with no-duh accuracy over the previous Winter Classics that it’s a lot of labor setting up that rink for only one main event. Therefore, the rink ought to go up and stay up long enough to offer a little spotlight time to all worthy parties. The Women’s Hockey East Association and ECAC are no exception.

New England is, after all, the most well-rounded hockey region in the country, what with the Bruins, eight AHL teams, gobs of sound boys and girls prep school programs, and the largest quantity of both men’s and women’s Division-I college programs. Every single one of these breeds of hockey should capitalize on this.

For the likes of Boston College and Boston University, this would be an especially well-timed episode in their burgeoning rivalry. Packets of loyal women’s hockey fans have already seen the Eagles and Terriers establish mutual intensity and parity with their crucial Valentine’s Day shootout and subsequent first Hockey East playoff meeting. Now is the time to follow up and take the feud to Fenway to show the hockey world –hopefully with the assistance of a TV broadcast- that there is an equally entertaining women’s version of the Battle for Commonwealth Avenue.

Beyond that, though, you also have such perennial powerhouses as New Hampshire, Dartmouth, and Harvard to consider, not to mention the other eight D-I schools within the Hub’s sphere of influence (Brown, Connecticut, Maine, Northeastern, Providence, Quinnipiac, Vermont, and Yale).

Granted, to say that they will all be given a turn is akin to expecting all aspirant Olympians to receive an all-access pass to Vancouver next February. But just the same, someone has to step up and scoop up some sorely-craved publicity on behalf of the women’s game. And in turn, the Fenway officials need to be open to their harmless wishes.