North Country Thanksgiving Festival

North Country Thanksgiving Festival
Sport	College ice hockey
Founded	1970
Ceased	1981
No. of teams	4–3
Venue(s)	Appleton Arena, Walker Arena
Last; champion(s)	Clarkson
Most titles	Clarkson (8)

The North Country Thanksgiving Festival (also called the 'North Country Thanksgiving Invitational') was an annual NCAA men's Division I ice hockey tournament held annually at the Appleton Arena and Walker Arena in upstate New York around Thanksgiving. The tournament began in 1970 and was played every year until 1981. Both Clarkson and St. Lawrence served as hosts for the in-season tournament.^[1]^[2]

Format

Unlike most college hockey tournaments, the North Country Festival did not have a championship game. Instead, each of the four participants would play one another and the team(s) with the best record would be awarded the championship. The series changed to a more normal bracket format in 1974 but returned to the round-robin arrangement the following year. In 1978 and 1981, only three teams participated in the tournament. In 1979 and 1980 the two 'visiting' teams did not play one another.

Yearly results

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third place	Fourth place
1970	Clarkson	New Hampshire	Bowling Green	St. Lawrence
1971	St. Lawrence	Clarkson	Vermont	Colgate
1972	Clarkson	Vermont	Rensselaer	St. Lawrence
1973	Toronto	Clarkson	Ohio State	St. Lawrence
1974	Bowling Green	Boston University	Clarkson	St. Lawrence
1975	Concordia	Clarkson	St. Lawrence	Vermont
1976	Clarkson	Ottawa	New Hampshire	St. Lawrence
1977	Clarkson	Rensselaer	St. Lawrence	Concordia
1978	Clarkson	St. Lawrence	Laval	N/A
1979	Clarkson	Western Ontario / Yale		St. Lawrence
1980	Clarkson	Lowell	Bowling Green	St. Lawrence
1981	Clarkson	St. Lawrence	Brown	N/A

Team records

Team	# of times participated	Titles
Clarkson	12	8
Toronto	1	1
Concordia	2	1
Bowling Green	3	1
St. Lawrence	12	1
Boston University	1	0
Brown	1	0
Colgate	1	0
Laval	1	0
Lowell	1	0
Ohio State	1	0
Ottawa	1	0
Western Ontario	1	0
Yale	1	0
New Hampshire	2	0
Rensselaer	2	0
Vermont	3	0

Game results

1970

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
26 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	3	New Hampshire	2
26 November	Appleton Arena	Bowling Green	6	St. Lawrence	5
27 November	Clarkson Arena	Clarkson	5	Bowling Green	2
27 November	Clarkson Arena	New Hampshire	4	St. Lawrence	2
28 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	4	St. Lawrence	2
28 November	Appleton Arena	New Hampshire	6	Bowling Green	4

1971

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
25 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	9	Colgate	3
25 November	Appleton Arena	St. Lawrence	7	Vermont	6
26 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	6	Vermont	2
26 November	Clarkson Arena	Colgate	3	St. Lawrence	2
27 November	Appleton Arena	St. Lawrence	3	Clarkson	2
27 November	Clarkson Arena	Vermont	9	Colgate	3

1972

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
23 November	Clarkson Arena	Clarkson	5	Vermont	2
23 November	Appleton Arena	Rensselaer	4	St. Lawrence	2
24 November	Clarkson Arena	Clarkson	4	Rensselaer	2
24 November	Appleton Arena	Vermont	4	St. Lawrence	1
25 November	Appleton Arena	St. Lawrence	6	Clarkson	2
25 November	Clarkson Arena	Vermont	6	Rensselaer	1

1973

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
22 November	Clarkson Arena	Clarkson	8	Ohio State	3
22 November	Appleton Arena	Toronto	2	St. Lawrence	1
23 November	Clarkson Arena	Toronto	7	Clarkson	1
23 November	Clarkson Arena	Ohio State	6	St. Lawrence	5
24 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	4	St. Lawrence	1
24 November	Appleton Arena	Toronto	3	Ohio State	1

1974

Semifinals November 29		Championship November 30

Clarkson	6

Boston University	9
		Boston University	2

		Bowling Green	3
St. Lawrence	5

Bowling Green	6**	Consolation


		Clarkson	8

		St. Lawrence	1

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

1975

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
27 November	Appleton Arena	Concordia	5	Clarkson	1
27 November	Appleton Arena	St. Lawrence	8	Vermont	2
28 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	3	Vermont	1
28 November	Appleton Arena	Concordia	6	St. Lawrence	2
29 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	5	St. Lawrence	1
29 November	Appleton Arena	Concordia	5	Vermont	2

1976

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
25 November	Walker Arena	Clarkson	5	New Hampshire	2
25 November	Appleton Arena	Ottawa	4	St. Lawrence	3
26 November	Walker Arena	Clarkson	13	Ottawa	3
26 November	Appleton Arena	New Hampshire	9	St. Lawrence	8
27 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	7	St. Lawrence	1
27 November	Appleton Arena	Ottawa	5	New Hampshire	3

1977

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
24 November	Appleton Arena	Concordia	6	Clarkson	5
24 November	Appleton Arena	Rensselaer	4	St. Lawrence	2
25 November	Walker Arena	Clarkson	5	Rensselaer	4
25 November	Appleton Arena	St. Lawrence	8	Concordia	0
26 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	6	St. Lawrence	3
26 November	Appleton Arena	Rensselaer	7	Concordia	3

1978

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
23 November	Walker Arena	Clarkson	8	Laval	5
24 November	Appleton Arena	St. Lawrence	11	Laval	4
25 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	4	St. Lawrence	1

1979

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
22 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	6	Western Ontario	5
22 November	Appleton Arena	Yale	6	St. Lawrence	3
23 November	Walker Arena	Clarkson	8	Yale	7
23 November	Appleton Arena	Western Ontario	9	St. Lawrence	7
24 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	6	St. Lawrence	5

1980

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
27 November	Walker Arena	Clarkson	6	Bowling Green	5
27 November	Appleton Arena	Lowell	7	St. Lawrence	5
28 November	Walker Arena	Clarkson	6	Lowell	2
28 November	Appleton Arena	Bowling Green	6	St. Lawrence	6
29 November	Walker Arena	Clarkson	4	St. Lawrence	2

1981

Date	Location	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
26 November	Appleton Arena	St. Lawrence	10	Brown	6
27 November	Walker Arena	Clarkson	6	Brown	3
28 November	Appleton Arena	Clarkson	5	St. Lawrence	4

References

^ "Clarkson Men's Hockey 2017-18 Media Guide". Clarkson Golden Knights. Retrieved 2018-09-17.
^ "Saint Hockey Record Book 2015-16" (PDF). St. Lawrence Saints. Retrieved November 4, 2019.

[CLK-1] "Clarkson Men's Hockey 2017-18 Media Guide". Clarkson Golden Knights. Retrieved 2018-09-17.

[SLU-2] "Saint Hockey Record Book 2015-16" (PDF). St. Lawrence Saints. Retrieved November 4, 2019.

[1]

[2]

v t e Clarkson Golden Knights men's ice hockey
Playing venues	Ives Park (1920–1923, 1925–1938) Clarkson Rink (1923–1925) Walker Arena (1938–1991) Cheel Arena (1991–Present)
Head coaches	Gordon Croskery (1923–1929) Jack Roos (1929–1948) Bill Harrison (1948–1958) Len Ceglarski (1958–1972) Jerry York (1972–1979) Bill O'Flaherty (1979–1985) Cap Raeder (1985–1988) Mark Morris (1988–2002) Fred Parker (2002–2003) George Roll (2003–2011) Casey Jones (2011–2024) Jean-François Houle (2024–Present)
Seasons	1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Conference affiliations	Tri-State League 1950–1972 ECAC Hockey (1961–Present)
Rivalries	Rensselaer St. Lawrence
Culture & lore	North Country Thanksgiving Festival
All-time leaders	Statistical leaders Dave Taylor (251 Points) Kevin Zappia (103 Goals) Dan Murphy (85 Wins)
Frozen Four appearances	1957 1958 1962 1963 1966 1970 1991
NCAA Tournament appearances	1957 1958 1962 1963 1966 1970 1981 1982 1984 1990 1991 1992 1993 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2007 2008 2018
Conference Tournament titles	1966 1991 1993 1999 2007
Clarkson University Potsdam, NY

v t e St. Lawrence Saints men's ice hockey
Playing venues	Weeks Field Rink (1925–1929) Brewer Field Rink (1929–1930) Appleton Arena (1951–present)
Head coaches	D. F. McCarthy (1925–1926) Formoza Degre (1926–1928) James Mallon (1929–1930) Alfred Sheard (1938–1941) Jack Klemens (1946–1947) Paul Patten (1947–1950) Olav Kollevoll (1950–1955) George Menard (1955–1967, 1968–1971) Bernie McKinnon (1967–1968, 1971–1976) Leon Abbott (1976–1979) Dale Henwood (1979–1980) Mike McShane (1980–1985) Joe Marsh (1985–2012) Greg Carvel (2012–2016) Mark Morris (2016–2019) Brent Brekke (2019–present)
Seasons	1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1942–43 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Conference affiliations	Tri-State League (1950–1972) ECAC Hockey (1961–present)
Rivalries	Clarkson Golden Knights
Culture & lore	North Country Thanksgiving Festival
All-time leaders	Pete Lappin (187 Points) Brian McFarlane (101 Goals) Bill Sloan (65 Wins)
Frozen Four appearances	1952 1955 1956 1959 1960 1961 1962 1988 2000
NCAA Tournament appearances	1952 1955 1956 1959 1960 1961 1962 1983 1987 1988 1989 1992 1999 2000 2001 2007 2021*
Conference Tournament titles	ECAC: 1962 1988 1989 1992 2000 2001 2021
St. Lawrence University Canton, NY