Women's Hockey East Association

Women's Hockey East Association (WHEA)
Established	2002
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I
Members	9
Sports fielded	Ice hockey
Region	New England
Headquarters	Wakefield, Massachusetts
Commissioner	Joe Bertagna
Website	http://www.hockeyeastonline.com

The Women's Hockey East Association, also known as WHEA, is a college ice hockey conference which operates in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.

Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for men's hockey when most of its current members split from what is today known as ECAC Hockey. Women's ice Hockey became a widely played Division I US College sportin the 1990s. In response to the growing competition, the WHEA began play in 2002.

There were six Charter teams in the 2002-03 season, including Boston College, UConn, Maine, UNH, Northeastern and Providence. In 2005, Boston University and Vermont were added. Merrimack College joined the WHEA for the 2015-16 season.

The Hockey East Championship was held in Boston from its inception in 2003 until 2007. The event was held at Northeastern's Matthews Arena in 2003 and 2004 before moving to BU's Walter Brown Arena in 2005. The tournament returned to Matthews Arena in 2006, was held at UNH's Whittemore Center in 2007, and at UConn's Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum in 2008. The tournament went back to UNH in 2009, Providence in 2010, and the last campus to host was Boston University in 2011. The tournament moved to Hyannis, Massachusetts in 2012, and Lawler Arena on the Merrimack College campus in North Andover, Massachusetts in 2016.

...
Wikipedia